Aardappelrooiers c. 1886 - 1888

Curator: Anton Mauve's drawing, "Aardappelrooiers," which translates to "Potato Harvesters," dates back to somewhere between 1886 and 1888, and it now resides here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Immediately, I’m struck by the sparseness, the sort of muted grief that emanates from this scene despite its humble subject. Curator: Grief? That's intense! It’s just people digging up potatoes. You’ve been reading too much radical theory. It feels like a glimpse into Mauve's private observational sketches—realism tinged with quiet intimacy. Editor: Well, think about it. The bent backs, the earth-toned palette... Potato harvesting, then as now, involved back-breaking labor. Consider who is performing this labor and their class. It’s almost a documentation of the brutal demands on the working class, specifically in agrarian societies. There is nothing bucolic about this scene to me. Curator: I suppose the sketch's immediacy, the almost frantic energy in those pencil lines, speaks to a reality beyond idyllic landscapes. Editor: Exactly! It reminds me of the way Millet portrayed rural life. A challenge to the romanticised depictions—the sort propagated by the aristocracy and the Bourgeoisie to soothe the class conscience. There are certainly intersections there. Curator: Yes, but Mauve—who, you know, was Vincent van Gogh's cousin-in-law—he focused on the details of daily life. Think of light, texture…a sort of tenderness amid the labor, wouldn't you say? Or, I could ask, what kind of politics would drive an aesthetic? Is the art the right kind? Editor: A fair question. Mauve's aesthetic, whether consciously or not, brings attention to those normally unseen. Curator: True. A sort of...visceral acknowledgment of human endurance and quiet struggle? I think that works. The drawing’s power rests in that tension, in that contradiction between harsh reality and understated artistry. Editor: Indeed. It prompts a dialogue about how we perceive and represent labor, class, and the hidden costs of everyday sustenance. So, you know, it is much more than people digging up potatoes.