Driemaster 1797 - 1838

Curator: Here we have a pen and pencil drawing titled "Driemaster" which roughly translates to "Three-Master," created sometime between 1797 and 1838 by Johannes Christiaan Schotel. You can find it amongst the collection at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Wow, there's a deceptive stillness about this, isn't there? At first glance, it seems quiet, almost fragile with those delicate lines, but there’s a sense of immense, barely contained power humming beneath the surface. The sails suggest captured wind—promising motion and escape. Curator: Schotel was deeply interested in marine subjects and Romanticism was at its peak then, focusing heavily on nature. You sense that interest in how he painstakingly details the rigging, masts, and sails. To me, it's emblematic of humanity’s relationship with nature's power—taming it, using it, but always being subservient. The Dutch had an exceptionally intimate relation to the seas. Editor: Precisely! I get this overwhelming feeling of ambition. The upward thrust of the masts... It's like reaching for something just beyond grasp. Also, it makes me think about how seafaring always had to represent crossing some kind of existential boundary for the psyche as much as a literal border for merchants, explorers, colonizers and travelers alike. What stories must that vessel hold? Curator: Indeed! And those countless ropes could suggest how culture becomes its own complicated web, like the threads of fate we are constantly negotiating our connection to destiny through free will. It’s that tension of control, of deciding where we are headed in our ship through life. Editor: The lightness in Schotel's lines really amplifies this for me, highlighting their delicate, crucial connection and tension. Curator: His art also really embodies the Romantic period’s ethos which saw landscape as emotional mirrors that showed something about the self, revealing our innermost yearnings. Editor: And here we have it – our collective desire and ability to transcend, bound to a delicate yet immense vessel of hope and possibility. A little light and delicate, it still sails. Curator: Indeed. It shows us the past reflected in our aspirations, connected still by fragile and bold threads.