Hussars Riding Single File 

Curator: Let’s turn our attention to this print, "Hussars Riding Single File," by George Hendrik Breitner. It’s an etching, a fascinating medium… Editor: Yes, and even at first glance, the sense of transience is palpable; those dark, decisive lines render figures seemingly in perpetual motion. Curator: Precisely. Think about the hussars themselves, light cavalrymen. They represent swiftness, reconnaissance… a military force acting on the periphery, on the move, a projection of power. Editor: Etching inherently carries that feeling—it’s all about using acid to bite into the metal, creating grooves that hold the ink. It mimics the energy, the sharp, biting action… and what is war and imperial expansion if not that kind of process enacted on land, on bodies? Curator: You make an interesting point there. The image can remind one of older military glories and past powers. In many cultures, horses are symbols of war but also status, even virility… and the act of riding evokes mastery, dominion. Do you perceive those symbols at play? Editor: Definitely, but what strikes me equally is how humble the whole enterprise looks! Etching feels a world away from painting: more intimate and small-scale… less spectacular for the soldier. This, more than anything, resembles the toil of making war—on horses, no less! One of the oldest methods of travel and transport. It brings us back to something primordial. Curator: Yes, it's the mundanity of warfare, so different from how military endeavours are portrayed, very often. And perhaps here, the symbolic importance becomes subverted: if everything feels like 'toil,' we are less moved by those historic virtues. Editor: I see your point. It allows for something more critical—looking past the martial symbols onto the nitty gritty of process, and making. Curator: A fresh reminder of the way historical images, and symbols morph and carry so many things across time! Editor: A truly poignant image about materiality of power, in the end.