Vos en een boek 1792

Editor: So, this is “Fox and a Book,” from 1792, by Reinier Vinkeles. It's a drawing or print – looks like an engraving. What strikes me is how small it is, a little vignette, and also… what exactly *is* the fox doing? It's so odd! What do you make of it? Curator: Isn’t it curious? To me, it's a sly little wink from the past. Genre painting wasn’t usually this…whimsical. Consider the date. 1792! Revolution was brewing, and here's Vinkeles, giving us a fox eyeing a book. The landscape's almost…theatrical, wouldn't you say? Like a stage set for a fable? Editor: Definitely theatrical! It feels less about realism and more about…a feeling? That makes sense given its Romanticism style. I initially missed that, just focusing on the strangeness of the subject. Is he satirizing the upper classes, perhaps, who would be the ones reading? Curator: Maybe, but perhaps something more universal. Learning can be an awkward, humbling experience. Maybe he saw a bit of himself in that fox. After all, Vinkeles made prints after other artists. Was he a fox sniffing at *their* books, absorbing and reinterpreting? Food for thought, eh? What will you take away from seeing this unusual scene? Editor: I think I'll remember the playful absurdity of it. Art doesn't always have to be grand pronouncements, sometimes it’s just a fox and a book. Curator: Exactly. And sometimes, the smallest fox has the biggest secrets, locked away between the pages.