La peau de l'ours / De huid van den beer 1833 - 1911

Curator: This delightfully quirky lithograph is entitled "La peau de l'ours," also known as "De huid van den beer," created sometime between 1833 and 1911 by Brepols & Dierckx zoon. It's currently held at the Rijksmuseum. It presents itself as a kind of illustrated narrative. What are your initial impressions? Editor: What a bizarre tableau! It reminds me of a fever dream translated into a series of vintage postcards. The colors are muted yet captivating. This strange sequence featuring men, bears, and a… cafe?… definitely piques my curiosity. Curator: I see a series of sequential panels which suggest a narrative. It seems the story plays upon folk-art motifs, particularly around encounters with nature and elements of genre-painting. The symbolism suggests an intriguing contrast between the wilderness and encroaching societal structure. What does that imply to you? Editor: It’s almost unsettling, how neatly dressed everyone is even while tangling with wild animals! Is it satirical? Is it observing our vain attempts to impose order where chaos really rules? And what of the bear itself, seemingly a catalyst and agent of disruption, sometimes mischievous and other times dangerous? Curator: Yes! The bear image has powerful associations of untamed strength. But placed within the context of these somewhat regimented social scenes, does the image subvert social norms or reveal our deep seated ambivalence towards wilderness itself? What I find particularly curious is the last scene of what looks like someone suspended by a pulley, or hoist; perhaps symbolic of transformation or exposure? Editor: Maybe! Or maybe just a darkly comic full-stop to a string of unfortunate events. You know, seeing the Cafe image nestled among so many interactions in the landscape makes me consider the relationship between civilization and primal instincts. Did coffee give these guys the guts to mess with bears in the first place? Or are both the Cafe *and* the bear parts of the same old game? Curator: Perhaps the artist challenges us to decode our assumptions concerning humanity and nature itself? Editor: Possibly! Either way, I'm more than ready to spin theories about it in that aforementioned cafe… care to join me? Curator: (Chuckles) An appealing suggestion. Until then, perhaps it's worth contemplating how comic styles, such as this, are employed to reveal underlying cultural anxieties and philosophical contemplation.