Boeren met vee bij een beek 1605 - 1673

Curator: Here we have Lucas van Uden’s “Boeren met vee bij een beek,” dating roughly between 1605 and 1673. This Dutch Golden Age piece is an etching and engraving. What strikes you about it? Editor: Initially, it’s incredibly tranquil. The soft etching lines create a sort of hazy, dreamlike pastoral scene. The greyscale tones amplify the sense of calm and timelessness. Curator: The composition certainly emphasizes a sense of depth. The artist uses the winding stream to guide the eye back into the landscape, toward that almost-hidden farmhouse. The placement of the figures and livestock along the bank serves to measure the scene while providing depth through shadow, wouldn't you agree? Editor: Absolutely. And those three birds flying overhead give an added layer, an aspirational sense of openness in what otherwise may read as confined. Semiotically speaking, one could even go as far as reading these flying objects to transcend limitations through their action and location in the scene. Curator: Perhaps. Or maybe they’re just…birds? I like to imagine myself in that scene, feeling the cool water and hearing the lowing of the cattle. It feels more grounded than symbolic to me, deeply rooted in nature. Editor: While that reading isn’t incorrect, I invite you to also think of how Van Uden employed engraving. The sharp contrast between light and shadow is less about portraying realism, and more about eliciting a mood. Curator: Maybe so, but what I really love is the way the light filters through the trees in the background. You can almost smell the earthy, rich tones of nature through the carefully executed cross-hatching of each tree’s leaves. It almost pulls you in to feel like you belong there in that quiet scene. Editor: Agreed, the piece invites one into the perspective quite easily, almost seductively I would argue. And despite the formal constraints of black and white, there’s a huge tonal scale— it invites deep visual processing as we read the gradations of greys through to pure white or solid black, as in the deeply shaded groups of the cows. A real visual treat, if you let it work its charm on you.