Flachsfeld in Neusalz an der Oder c. 1886

Editor: Here we have Otto Scholderer’s "Flachsfeld in Neusalz an der Oder," created around 1886 using pencil on paper. It has a rather wistful, almost nostalgic, quality to it. What strikes you when you look at this landscape? Curator: The drawing presents itself as a seemingly simple landscape, but within that simplicity lies a wealth of information about land use, the industrialising society, and the relationship between people and their environment in late 19th-century Germany. Note how the flax field dominates the foreground; it signals a specific agricultural practice tied to textile production. Who benefits from this cultivation and under what labor conditions? Editor: So, beyond the pretty landscape, you see social commentary? Curator: Precisely. Consider the location, Neusalz an der Oder. It’s unlikely Scholderer chose this site randomly. The area was undergoing rapid industrial development. How does the drawing subtly acknowledge, or perhaps critique, this change? The building on the right, for instance; does it stand in contrast to the more natural landscape? Is this, in any way, an anti-capitalist artwork? Editor: I see what you mean. The building definitely seems out of place, more formal and rigid compared to the flax field and the trees. And the lone figure in the landscape seems so small. Curator: That's a crucial observation. How might that positioning and scale speak to an individual’s relationship to the forces of industrial and agricultural production at that time? Also consider that flax production was, at this time, declining due to competition. What can that tell us? Editor: So much more to it than initially meets the eye! I had considered only its aesthetic appeal, never imagining the depth of socioeconomic factors involved. Curator: Exactly, it's by situating art within its complex historical, social and economical contexts that we discover it speaks volumes.