Ontwerp voor een secretaire 1822

Editor: So, this is “Ontwerp voor een secretaire,” a design for a secretary desk, by Carl Wilhelm Marckwort, made with pencil on paper around 1822. It feels very…precise, almost mathematical in its detail. What do you see in it? Curator: Ah, precision is a lovely word for it! I see more than just lines on paper; I see the ghost of empires, the echo of a fascination with the past trying to build a future. Look at the geometry, the Roman columns—it’s all Neoclassical, right? Editor: Definitely. But what’s so ghostly about it? Curator: Well, Neoclassicism always struck me as haunted by the grandeur it tries to emulate. Think about it: Marckwort is drafting this desk, meant for letters, secrets, daily life, but cloaked in the visual language of emperors and philosophers. It's like building a monument to your mundane thoughts! And the desk is all design. It lacks a soul. Do you not think? Editor: I hadn't thought of it that way... It's a functional object aspiring to be something more, yet, as you said, it somehow lacks life in this drawing, doesn't connect to its purpose. It's a fascinating contrast. Curator: Exactly! Perhaps it's a longing for order in a world that’s inherently messy, don’t you agree? These clean lines promise control, while the secrets hidden within the desk's drawers surely tell a different story, of tangled emotions, desires… I also admire how a flat object allows one to think and see "form". So...what now? Will you be buying it for me? Editor: Ha! If only I had the funds. For now, I'm happy just to appreciate how much this drawing reveals about its historical moment and even the tensions within the artist himself. Curator: Yes! Me too! That's the delightful haunting that art can provide: objects showing our troubled selves. I've learned tons!