Elegant gezelschap op een terras met zicht op een park 1708 - 1733

Curator: The eye is drawn into this lively gathering, wouldn’t you agree? So much going on within a structured space. Editor: It's quite grand, isn't it? There is this definite air of leisurely elegance… the light, the airy terrace... the well-dressed figures… all under this classic arched architecture, suggesting a baroque fantasy. Curator: Indeed. We're looking at a print entitled "Elegant gezelschap op een terras met zicht op een park," or “Elegant company on a terrace overlooking a park”. It's an engraving made sometime between 1708 and 1733. The engraver who brought it to life was Gérard Jean-Baptiste Scotin, based on a painting by Watteau. It resides here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: The placement of the figures is very deliberate and immediately noticeable. Everyone is paired and posed to show this relaxed choreography in contrast with those almost forbidding columns that loom over them. I'm picking up suggestions of Arcadian escapism. The symbolism feels very knowing and intentional, as if everyone here is living a part within this carefully designed piece. Curator: Absolutely. Garden parties like this were incredibly important social stages, and as you pointed out, designed and performed to. Social mobility became linked to displays of taste. That performance, and the associated social rules around dress, behavior, conversation became markers to distinguish yourself from common classes, from the unrefined. Editor: What really captivates me is how those statues seem to mimic and watch those enjoying themselves down below. Perhaps there is also a parallel there with what we do as viewers – both as observers but also interpreting deeper stories of humanity's quest for beauty and social meaning that we ourselves continue to write over and over again. Curator: In this engraving, we glimpse not just an artwork, but a window into the performance of social identity. I hadn’t considered it this way until you brought that up. Editor: That little dog too— the image's painterly touches hint at even more secrets, both playful and sophisticated. It is charming, really.