Herder en herderin drijven hun schapen voort 1649

Curator: Harmen ter Borch gives us this lovely, unassuming little scene: "Herder en herderin drijven hun schapen voort," created in 1649. What jumps out at you? Editor: Immediately, a sense of labor, of raw materiality. It’s just pencil on paper, but the lines are so suggestive. You see the quick, repeated strokes creating a sense of volume in the sheep's wool. Almost meditative, really. Curator: It does have a simple, quiet beauty, doesn’t it? The artist really captures the feeling of pastoral life, that back-to-basics hum of human existence intertwined with the land and these gentle creatures. And with just a few strokes, the curve of the figures’ backs indicates the effort it takes to shepherd animals. Editor: Exactly! Look at the way the line quality varies to depict both the organic texture of the sheep and the crafted garments worn by the herders. The means of representing these laborers through those clothing and gestures are as critical as representing the sheep themselves. Dutch Golden Age art usually idealized the upper class, but this looks quite unlike that to me. Curator: True. And there's a charming tension here—between the idyllic notion of pastoral care and the quite pragmatic, real work. It is beautiful in a humble sort of way. Almost like a faded memory, a world away from the commerce of city life from which these would have been purchased. It whispers. Editor: Well, whispering makes me wonder who the patron was, and what their relationship might have been with rural labor. Maybe someone romanticizing it from afar, or perhaps more directly dependent on it than we realize. Curator: I hadn't considered the personal connection so deeply. It’s an unpretentious artwork in terms of medium, but its depth is really unveiled upon closer inspection. It offers us such insight. Editor: Agreed, a poignant reflection. Now I see so much about daily toil in the details of the marks on the page!