Sluis in een rivier c. 1634

Curator: Right, let's take a moment with this subtly stunning drawing, "Sluis in een rivier" or "Lock on a River" by Gerard ter Borch II, created around 1634. It’s an ink and wash drawing, currently residing here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Immediately, I see waterlogged wood, the suggestion of hard labor implied by the structural elements – and an extraordinary stillness. Is this drawing really almost four centuries old? Curator: It is! Ter Borch really captures the quiet dignity of the working landscape, doesn't he? The way the light catches the water...it almost breathes. I wonder what that sliver of open waterway meant to him. Editor: The paper itself contributes to this sensation, though—see the texture? I'm also wondering about the mechanics of that lock system, the carpentry—it was quite sophisticated. How that contrasts with our modern perceptions! It makes one contemplate water management of the era, all that engineering. Curator: Absolutely, and if you look closely at that solitary figure in the left background, Ter Borch seems less concerned with idealized beauty and more about… everyday realities. Perhaps he saw in it a personal connection of working hands. Editor: I agree; the materiality tells that story, with visible marks, worn wood. Were these made for commissions? A way of showing his skill in observing architecture with raw materials, or did it stem from personal curiosities of the infrastructure surrounding the Dutch? Curator: Good questions! Many Dutch Golden Age artists focused intensely on depicting their surrounding environment with astounding attention to detail. Drawings like this may be a type of artistic field-work. I suppose what’s lasting to me is the calm it evokes; its ability to be quietly poetic without grandiose gestures. Editor: Agreed, that tension between utility and quiet observation makes me reflect on unseen efforts. The value placed in this quiet but essential form. It shifts your focus to all things that involve laborious process in craft or trade.