Bouwwerk met katrollen, mogelijk een waterput c. 1862 - 1864

Editor: So this is "Bouwwerk met katrollen, mogelijk een waterput" from around 1862-1864, by Johannes Tavenraat. It's a pencil drawing in a sketchbook. I'm struck by its roughness, almost like a diagram. What do you see in this piece? Curator: It’s fascinating to consider the labour inherent in this seemingly simple sketch. Tavenraat is depicting a device, likely for drawing water. This implicates manual work, physical exertion. The well itself speaks to a necessity, a reliance on a specific type of resource and the structures created to extract it. Editor: I guess I hadn't thought about the labour part of it. It just looked like a quick study to me. Curator: Think about the material reality: the wood, the rope, the metal of the pulleys - all require different forms of resource extraction and craft. What was the economic system supporting that? Is this drawing documenting a specific site or is it speculative? Was he perhaps involved in these material processes? These questions allow us to situate the drawing within the social and economic realities of 19th century labour and industry. Editor: That makes me think differently about sketchbooks and what they mean as a piece of art - were they just about aesthetics or do they tell us about materials and social structure too? Curator: Precisely! By examining the materials depicted, the social function of the object represented, and even the paper and pencil used in the drawing itself, we uncover layers of meaning far beyond simple aesthetic appreciation. Editor: This has totally shifted my view. I am off to analyze the labour element in my sketchbook work, immediately. Curator: Wonderful! Looking at art from the perspective of the artist's materials and how things were made has a lot to offer.