Gezicht op het dorp Hockai in de Ardennen 1838 - 1879

Curator: Immediately, there’s a feeling of stillness and maybe even isolation evoked by this small etching. It feels as if the wind might be blowing… do you feel that? Editor: It's undeniably quiet. A deep silence permeates everything. I can see in the picture that Jean Pierre François Lamorinière offers us, it is entitled 'Gezicht op het dorp Hockai in de Ardennen,' or, ‘View of the village Hockai in the Ardennes’, created sometime between 1838 and 1879. The original resides at the Rijksmuseum. Curator: Rijksmuseum. Yes. Its landscape has a dreamlike realism. The perspective leads me right into the village center... though 'center' might be too strong a word. It’s a crossroads more than a plaza. And the contrast between the road and the rooftops gives it almost a childlike quality, don’t you think? Like something rendered in an old fairytale. Editor: I do agree about the contrast. It certainly seems symbolic, and invites that interpretation. Village scenes often represent idealized community. What do you see in the actual forms used here? Curator: There’s a stark simplicity to them. You know, I often think artists who commit to etchings possess a certain courage. So much labor for, relatively speaking, so few lines. What can a line express? What CAN'T a line express? I’d rather live there than Manhattan, put it that way. Editor: I am definitely noticing the commitment to lines. There is an emphasis on capturing textures through hatching and cross-hatching. Light seems almost to shimmer. I imagine that Hockai, like many rural communities, held distinct symbolic meaning. As in, tradition and self-sufficiency, especially when framed against the emerging industrialism in other regions. What's particularly beautiful is that interplay, you know? That old battle of tradition versus… new ideas. Curator: Absolutely. It is what’s buried—just out of sight—that creates that pull, yes. This etching becomes, then, a preservation, or perhaps even an invocation of the ‘real’. Which might also speak to your original point—idealized, yes, but still, at its heart, grounded. And human. Editor: Ultimately, a meditation on place and memory, don’t you think? And our ever-shifting perception of both. Curator: Right, this silent vista is not just a place. It’s a little monument, yes? An intimate world within the confines of an etching.