Twee jachthonden met een haas 1840 - 1880

Editor: So, here we have "Two Hunting Dogs with a Hare," a pen and ink drawing by Johannes Tavenraat, created sometime between 1840 and 1880. It’s at the Rijksmuseum. The immediate feel is almost… cruel, yet comical with those gangly dogs. What do you make of this little drama? Curator: It strikes me as an artist working out ideas, a flurry of lines capturing movement, that tug-of-war between the dogs over their prize. See how the landscape is barely suggested? I feel Tavenraat was more interested in the dynamism, the primal urge driving these animals. Almost feels like a sketch of an idea. Does the hare seem stiff and unnatural? Editor: It does, almost doll-like. Makes me wonder if he had a model for the dogs, but just made up the hare…or maybe…borrowed a stuffed animal? Curator: Ha! I love that idea. Maybe Tavenraat, faced with drawing a real, floppy hare, decided, “Nope, too much detail, too…lifeless." Imagine the internal dialogue, right? Instead, a taxidermied hare, forever frozen in that awkward pose. It’s deliciously absurd, which gives the whole drawing an interesting quirky feel. It makes you want to ask more of a drawing than the mere image it puts in front of you. Editor: Absolutely. Thinking about the dogs battling over that stuffed hare changes everything! I'm going to think twice next time I think I know an artwork’s intention at a glance. Curator: Exactly! The story we create in our minds sometimes becomes far more compelling than the literal scene. This work taught us to let your imagination free.