Dorpsgezicht 1886

Curator: I find this drawing so intimate. We are looking at Maria Vos's "Dorpsgezicht," created in 1886, now held in the Rijksmuseum. It feels like a glimpse into her personal sketchbook. Editor: It’s spare, almost ghostly. Just thin lines defining what? Trees, maybe? It feels unfinished, raw in its materiality. Curator: Exactly. It gives us such a close view into her working methods, doesn't it? During this period, women artists often used sketchbooks as vital spaces to study and document their experiences of everyday life, and Vos seems no different. This intimate connection allows her to portray even ordinary scenery with depth. How does her identity as a woman artist intersect with her portrayal of the Dutch landscape? Editor: I'm curious about that ‘incomplete’ quality. It focuses attention on the labor, the mark-making. Look at how the repeated strokes almost render a kind of fabric or screen between us and the depicted scene. Was she thinking about this in terms of the marketplace—preparing something for sale—or more about private reflection? Curator: Given the nature of sketchbook work, I’d imagine it a much more introspective exercise. Landscape during the 19th century became intertwined with ideas of national identity, yet, in this drawing, she doesn't focus on iconic vistas but shows an ordinary, even unpicturesque scene, challenging the romantic and nationalistic ideas in the artwork of the time. She has made a landscape study on her own terms. Editor: Right. There's a focus here on line and surface, so despite being a landscape, there’s also abstraction at play. This really comes through due to the sketch work, focusing on materials and craft. Curator: I agree, that tension between representation and abstraction certainly complicates our reading. It becomes more than a simple village view. This piece has sparked a few new ways of thinking about landscape! Editor: For me, it’s sparked new questions about how we value different kinds of artistic labor, both inside and outside the domestic space. Interesting how one little sketch can open up such considerations.