Vier muizen bij een kandelaar 1887 - 1931

Curator: The piece before us, by Frans Everbag, likely created sometime between 1887 and 1931, is a watercolour drawing titled “Four Mice by a Candlestick.” Editor: It’s surprisingly charming. A kind of quiet scene, the mice almost luminescent against the dim background. There’s something both sweet and slightly sinister about it. Curator: I think understanding the social role of anthropomorphic animal imagery at that time gives it depth. It circulated widely in children’s literature and political cartoons. Were the mice stand-ins for marginalized groups or societal ills? Editor: That's what jumps out, this feels very deliberately allegorical. Looking at how the mice huddle around the candle, is the extinguished flame a symbol of lost hope or privilege? Is the artist critiquing society, portraying those at the margins as drawn to a light that has failed? Curator: And look at the green of the candlestick. Green had evolving connotations in that era. Sometimes representing envy, or disease even. Do these associations then connect to the mice and the power dynamic, reflecting anxieties about the state, perhaps? Editor: It's interesting that you say disease; given the timeframe, how do the health concerns of the turn of the century manifest in artwork like this? One can see the fin-de-siècle anxieties in the very medium. Watercolour lends a delicacy but is quite fragile too. Curator: The artist's choice of medium underscores a kind of vulnerability, it gives voice to groups experiencing heightened social precarity. Perhaps this invites viewers to consider questions of power, privilege, and marginalization at the heart of institutional structures. Editor: Thinking of the candle now, and that slightly viscous texture... it makes me wonder how Everbag conceptualized his social context through these quotidian objects. This ordinary setting then becomes fertile ground to discuss ideas of identity. Curator: This has allowed me to re-imagine the scene in ways I had not previously thought, drawing the historical and social implications out of the image has helped. Editor: Exactly, now, instead of simply four little mice enjoying leftovers, one understands a broader framework of societal tensions from Everbag. The image is just one layer.