Oude houten huizen in de Ardennen 1838 - 1911

Editor: So, this is "Oude houten huizen in de Ardennen," Old Wooden Houses in the Ardennes, an etching by Jean Pierre François Lamorinière. It's dated between 1838 and 1911 and it’s held here at the Rijksmuseum. It has a very nostalgic feeling to me. What draws your eye when you look at this piece? Curator: I'm immediately struck by the artist's choice of etching. Consider the laborious process of scratching the image onto the plate, then inking and pressing. The image isn’t merely representational; it’s born from manual work, reflecting the toil associated with the rural setting it depicts. This challenges conventional boundaries, it’s almost craft, really. Editor: That’s a very interesting point. I hadn't thought about the labour of creating the image itself! How does that change how we look at the buildings depicted? Curator: Well, the materials also give us insights to the way these communities existed in the landscape at the time, doesn’t it? Notice the weathered wood, the thatched roofs...these materials directly link the houses to the immediate natural environment and the labour needed to transform these raw materials to usable resources. The surrounding landscape in turn provides these material for use. Editor: It’s like a closed loop system, isn’t it? A cycle. The community utilises and relies on its materials for existence. I hadn’t seen it that way. It moves beyond a simple pretty scene. Curator: Precisely. And understanding the means of production is understanding a larger context to which it belonged and which, in turn, contributed to its artistic merit. Editor: This definitely gives me a different perspective on the work! Thank you! Curator: My pleasure, every piece is a conversation!