Bomschuiten op het strand 1848 - 1888

Anton Mauve made this drawing of beached fishing boats, called Bomschuiten, using graphite on paper. It’s a quick study, a fleeting impression rendered with minimal effort. But think for a moment about that graphite. Where did it come from? Probably mined at a great distance, shipped to a factory, processed into pencils, then distributed to art supply shops, before finally ending up in Mauve’s hand. The drawing itself represents another form of labor: the fishermen who depended on these boats for their livelihoods. We only see them as a few lines, really stick figures. Mauve was not interested in their individual stories, but rather the scene before him, the way the light fell on these heavy vessels. Ultimately, a drawing like this prompts us to consider the many layers of work that it takes to produce an image, and how that labor often goes unseen.