Zittende visser 1820 - 1823

Curator: Before us we have David-Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville’s "Seated Fisherman", a pencil drawing from somewhere between 1820 and 1823, residing here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: It feels... delicate, ephemeral. Like a half-remembered dream of someone sitting by the sea. I like how little pressure the artist applied. Curator: Indeed, Superville was known for his fluid lines. Look at the way he captures the fisherman's worn clothing. You can almost feel the texture of the fabric. He does use drawing to illustrate a specific figure from labor! I appreciate the depiction of ordinary lives elevated through the careful process of rendering. Editor: Yes, but that hat steals the show! It is immense. It overwhelms the man beneath. I wonder what it signifies? Maybe he’s trying to be someone more than simply “the fisherman”? Perhaps there is yearning here. Or it could just be a really practical sunshade, I suppose. Curator: I like your reading of the hat. Given that Superville also worked with philosphy, perhaps that item represents his work, but that brings me to consider labor practices themselves. Here we see a single fisherman as a stand-in for the working person during a period of tumultuous transitions—where, in reality, those very fishermen lived together in closely knit quarters and were completely exploited as material, as manpower. It makes me think more and more about their situation, especially at the level of materiality itself. Editor: That is interesting! Now, all I can see are his calloused hands holding that writing device. Those tools! Are those marks the waves he cannot forget? I like him much better with an industrial perspective. He feels less lonely now. Curator: Perhaps, like that, by connecting emotional introspection with material considerations, we are looking toward a more honest representation of what it truly means to be here. I have come to appreciate his quiet introspection combined with hard, physical reality. Editor: For me it will remain both wistful sigh and industrial cog—perfectly balancing dreamy longings with grounded realities.