Boom met gekronkelde takken 1865 - 1913

Editor: This is “Boom met gekronkelde takken,” or “Tree with Twisted Branches,” an ink sketch done sometime between 1865 and 1913, and it’s currently at the Rijksmuseum. The starkness of the tree against the open space evokes a sense of loneliness. What strikes you when you look at it? Curator: What grabs me immediately is the evidence of the artist's hand and process. We see the skeletal structure of the image revealed in the lines, a kind of artistic labor laid bare. Bramine Hubrecht shows the work of making, and what this suggests about art’s role in society at that time. Why represent nature in this incomplete form? Editor: It feels very raw, immediate. It's just the basic essence of a tree in its most simple expression. Curator: Precisely! This raw quality allows us to reflect on the very materiality of art making: the cheap paper, the humble pencil. No gold leaf here. The process, usually hidden, becomes the product. How might the relative accessibility of these materials affected artistic output at the time? Editor: I guess more people were able to practice art since the material wasn’t extravagant or expensive? It opens art to other classes maybe? Curator: It democratizes image creation, decentering "high art". Do you see any commentary within this choice of representing art and how it moves away from high art ideals? What sort of statement is Hubrecht making by showing us the basic components of a landscape, the tree reduced to lines? Editor: I now realize the drawing material challenges this conventional idea about what deserves to be considered art and forces a different sort of focus and consideration. I’d never thought about that. Curator: And isn't that exactly the beauty of questioning traditional boundaries? Thinking about art with twisted branches offers such a wide variety of interpretations, doesn’t it? Editor: It certainly does. I'll definitely look at sketches and initial works with more interest moving forward.