Afscheidnemend paar 1729 - 1829

Curator: It's a piece steeped in longing. The light, even in the engraving, seems to convey a palpable sadness, doesn’t it? Editor: Indeed. What we are seeing is titled “Afscheidnemend paar”, it roughly translates to "Parting Couple" although in French is entitled "Les adieux du matelot" – "The Sailor's Farewell," created sometime between 1729 and 1829. This black and white engraving on paper shows a couple embracing in what is perhaps the last tender moment before a ship sets sail. The composition stages their intimate moment in contrast to the looming vessel behind them. Curator: Ah, yes! You get the sense the whole world hinges on that single embrace, everyone is concerned about them; and yet that ship just sits there. Cold and unblinking, ready to tear him away! I almost want to shout, “Turn back! Stay with her!” Editor: Your feeling reminds me about the concept of the public and the private sphere so often illustrated within history painting in that period, with the individual experience always in relationship to the collective identity of its context and place. Look at how the central narrative is juxtaposed by those smaller scenes along the coast in which some background figures are seemingly paying their last respects. The engraving masterfully captures personal vulnerability amidst inevitable historical shifts. Curator: Precisely, vulnerability is the key. The embrace, rendered with such delicate lines, seems fragile in the face of the ship's massive structure in the horizon. And it’s the contrast in size, right? That small boat almost disappearing in the waves. Do you notice? Maybe it’s me… But they seem scared. It makes you think about the individual destinies caught within these big movements of history… like their entire life! Editor: I couldn’t agree more. Perhaps the success of this work is rooted in its sensitive blend of the personal within the socio-historical. We get to see these human dramas play out as historical documents, these engravings gain a different kind of life, or a unique status inside our contemporary sensibilities and frameworks. Curator: To consider it then, just a story – but told with the truthfulness and depth to reach across the centuries and remind us of love and loss. What a feat!