Begroeide helling 1773 - 1843

Editor: Here we have Georges Michel’s "Begroeide helling," made sometime between 1773 and 1843. It's a pencil drawing, quite delicate really. It reminds me of a half-remembered dream, with those scratchy lines forming this intriguing, overgrown hillside. What captures your attention when you look at this piece? Curator: Oh, absolutely! It feels less like a portrayal and more like an evocation, doesn’t it? Like a memory trying to surface. For me, it’s the tension between the clear detail in certain areas and the almost total abstraction in others. Do you notice how the foliage seems almost violently scribbled, while the slope of the hill has this smooth, gentle quality? Editor: I see what you mean, that scribbled foliage really does have an energetic feeling. I guess that contrast gives it that dreamlike quality. It's like clarity fighting with chaos. Curator: Exactly! And that tension, I think, is Michel working within and against the Romantic tradition. He’s capturing the wildness of nature, its overwhelming power, but doing so with a controlled, almost classical medium. It's like trying to tame a storm with a teacup, isn’t it? Makes you wonder what he was thinking, sitting there with his pencil…did he feel more in control, or overwhelmed by the landscape itself? Editor: I never thought about it that way, framing it as a battle. I see it completely differently now, not just as a landscape, but as this sort of internal struggle between order and chaos. Curator: It's all about how we perceive it, isn't it? Which is the magic of art! Editor: Definitely food for thought, thank you!