De steenfabriek 1868 - 1892

Curator: Before us, we have Anthon Gerhard Alexander van Rappard's "De steenfabriek," created sometime between 1868 and 1892 using pencil and pen on paper. Editor: The scene is instantly familiar yet haunting, a flurry of pencil marks capturing something about daily toil. Is that resignation or determination etched into those sketched lines? I’m intrigued. Curator: Rappard’s realism really shines through here. The subject matter, a brick factory, speaks volumes about the changing industrial landscape. The repetitive nature of brickmaking mirrors the artist's choice of repetitive lines. Editor: Absolutely. It’s as if the visual field mirrors that relentless, soul-crushing labour, each line piling upon the next to trap its subjects inside the work-a-day world. But there is an aesthetic elegance in that pattern-making, the factory itself as a symbol of productivity and forward momentum, even hope. Curator: Hope, perhaps. I think there is truth to that. The stoicism of the workers certainly comes across—and I feel, even, a shared humanity between the artist and subject. What symbols catch your eye in this sketch? Editor: For me, it’s the stacks of bricks, a visual rhyme with the posture of the workers: heavy, weighty, embodying physical and psychological labor, bearing their load. Yet they stand, suggesting resilience amid hardship. It asks a viewer to reckon with their place, as consumer, in this tableau of labour, demanding to know if its worth it. Curator: And Rappard, as a realist, invites that self-reflection by showing the unvarnished truth of industrial labour and those left to carry it out day after day. Editor: Indeed. This understated sketch reveals how enduring our human dance with productivity truly is, echoing from the nineteenth century to our present anxieties about purpose, craft, and connection.