Twee acrobaten bij een circuspiste met paard 1942

Curator: At first glance, this piece exudes an almost unsettling stillness. It's titled "Two Acrobats by a Circus Ring with Horse," created by Lodewijk Schelfhout in 1942, using etching on paper. It now resides here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: The texture, immediately—the rough lines suggest it was a process heavy on the artist’s hand. The stark contrasts must have been physically demanding to etch. It feels more laborious than lighthearted, given its circus theme. Curator: That’s interesting. Schelfhout renders the human figures with almost classical proportions, calling to mind early Renaissance anatomical studies, and juxtaposes them with the almost ethereal image of a horse, traditionally symbolizing freedom. Could the labor involved actually be reflected in the thematic idea here? Editor: Absolutely. Notice how the line varies across the image? Deliberate in some parts of the anatomy but frenzied when he tackles the shading on that back section. Different tools could’ve been employed but it all points back to intense labour on this particular artwork. Perhaps suggesting there may be a disconnect, perhaps disillusionment regarding the means for creativity under socio-economic constraints? Curator: Or perhaps a personal commentary amidst wartime constraints. Given the period, one could interpret the distant horse as a longing for freedom, something yearned for but unattainable, the circus a facade, for entertainment, for what? An escape. Editor: Maybe. Although for all this, one must acknowledge the paper too— what fibres was he dealing with in 1942 Holland? Where and who provided him? A work produced is never divorced from its production pipeline, you see. I wager these all inform its very symbolic fabric. Curator: An interesting counterpoint to keep in mind, to consider how much such a delicate medium, like paper, impacts our cultural memory here. The human narrative, the artistic choices... fascinating! Editor: Precisely. Each etched line on this specific kind of paper and how they all feed into interpreting our values, as expressed within its themes. Fascinating indeed!