Verschillende figuren met krukken in een landschap 1638 - 1738

Curator: What a melancholic scene. Is this rendering of people using crutches and canes sitting under a tree or standing near a lake, all sketched out in pen and ink? There is a stillness in the pen illustration that has me intrigued to delve into the historical context. Editor: Immediately, I am drawn to the lines created by the anonymous hand behind this drawing, which is, "Verschillende figuren met krukken in een landschap" from somewhere between 1638 and 1738; that's quite a range. I am quite taken with how basic materials here have allowed the artist to construct a view of this gathering of figures, all leaning on supports, within this scene near the lake. Curator: That near-century window makes grasping a precise social reading somewhat difficult. Still, even glancingly, we see representations of disability and class intersected in this group. The baroque emphasis on realism clashes with what one can suppose are very idealized rural peasants, yet what about the lack of agency of those people to get other type of mobility support? How do we balance art aesthetics with social considerations here? Editor: Those supports crafted by someone, somewhere, at some point. Their hands roughened maybe. We're missing information that would show who consumes the crafts of laborers that support, sometimes, other laborers. I suppose this is why "genre-painting" never quite shows us the workshop of making, but the aftermath. Curator: Exactly. The absence speaks loudly to structures of inequality in making and access to this objects. The Rijksmuseum holds this work; I am sure numerous people are struck by a common interest with these characters portrayed, in disability, mobility support and its social and labor dimensions across centuries. But also what kind of accessibility there may have been to this drawing for subjects similarly limited by social economic constrains? It’s a poignant silence. Editor: Indeed. Perhaps thinking about materials can invite further questions that art history, alone, can't solve about this intriguing landscape drawing, that makes its Baroque melancholy feel more current. Thank you for walking with me through it. Curator: Thanks to you as well.