Kinderen spelend met een rolkar 1777 - 1779

Curator: Pieter de Mare's etching, "Kinderen spelend met een rolkar," or "Children playing with a pushcart," created around 1777 to 1779, invites us to consider the genre-painting traditions of the late 18th century. Currently, it is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Right, what strikes me first is the isolation amidst play—a sort of melancholy, even. The puller's active, yes, but almost stiff, while the child in the cart seems lost in their own world with the doll. Curator: That sense of isolation is heightened by the use of line. Observe the starkness of the background and the fineness of the etched lines; how the meticulous hatching defines form, while contributing to the tonal contrasts that guide the viewer's eye. It emphasizes the geometry and almost renders these kids as specimens. Editor: Specimens, that's it! But I wonder about the context of play during that time. It's a strange scene of privilege… that one child gets pulled with their toy while the other does the work. Curator: Genre scenes such as this offered the burgeoning middle class images of their own lives, and their children. Here, the focus isn’t so much on idealized beauty as on the textures and behaviors that defined middle-class life in that moment. We observe class distinctions within play. Editor: Hmm, makes me consider how play is almost like dress-up for the real power dynamics in life. Maybe not always intentionally, but...there's something heavy in that. I feel an urge to ask those kids what they are really thinking! Curator: Precisely. The artwork’s value lies not only in its aesthetic qualities but also in its potential to spark these types of broader reflections on society and human relations. Editor: Absolutely, seeing this etching has kind of cracked open a space between childish games and, well, the more grown-up ones. It stays with you.