Vijf landschappen c. 1864 - 1865

Curator: What strikes me first about these delicate watercolor washes is their evocative, almost fleeting, quality. Editor: Right? Like snippets of dreams. There's something incomplete about them, like a memory struggling to surface. It feels peaceful but also slightly melancholic. Curator: This sheet of studies is titled “Vijf landschappen,” or “Five Landscapes,” made by Maria Vos around 1864-1865, when Vos was working outside in a plein-air style, really immersing herself in nature. Her explorations resonate with the emerging Impressionistic movement and how it dealt with the temporality of what you see in front of you. Editor: Exactly. It's the feeling of a place, not a photorealistic representation. Take that cluster of trees, lower right: you sense the weight of them, the gnarledness of the bark, the quiet rustling. Watercolor feels like such an intimate medium. It reveals process and allows one to convey how fleeting an environment might feel when creating art. Curator: Precisely. Vos was painting at a time of immense societal transformation, and art became an important arena to both question and reinforce existing hierarchies and values. With the expansion of landscape art in the 19th century, it’s important to remember who could afford art and how access to natural landscapes and rural settings often came at the expense of marginalized groups. This artwork provides a glimpse into Vos’ artistic training at the time. Editor: Do you think these were preliminary explorations for something larger, perhaps? They are full of promise. There’s that cloud study… such subtle gradations of tone and weight in its form. What would Vos create had she more support? What narratives of land were excluded due to gender norms or socio-economic circumstances? Curator: Absolutely. There is an activism, I feel, inherent in spotlighting these hidden narratives. And remembering these are watercolors invites us to reflect more on how we interpret land and landscape painting today. Editor: Agreed. When I view Vos’ watercolor, I can easily visualize sitting with my paints and capturing what is in front of me: fleeting light, texture, mood... what a feeling. Thanks, Maria.