Twee staande mannen bij een zittende man 1782 - 1837

Editor: Here we have "Twee staande mannen bij een zittende man," or "Two Standing Men by a Sitting Man," by Pieter Bartholomeusz. Barbiers, dating from between 1782 and 1837. It's a pencil drawing on paper, housed here at the Rijksmuseum. It feels like a quick sketch, maybe a preliminary study for something larger. What strikes you most about this piece? Curator: The immediate impression is of labor. Pencil sketches like this weren't precious objects, they were tools. The paper itself was a commodity, a product of its own industrial processes. Consider how the artist mobilized these basic materials. How readily could these be acquired by the common craftsman? Editor: So you see the materiality and accessibility of the medium as significant? Curator: Precisely. Pencil allowed for quick, iterative design – sketching out ideas rapidly and discarding what didn’t work. Unlike oil paints or even more refined drawings, pencil on paper allowed for spontaneity, the free flow of ideas from mind to material. This wasn't about creating a finished, polished product but rather documenting a moment of conception. What are the economics surrounding its creation versus something produced for the Royal academy at the time? Editor: That's a good point. This feels more immediate, more utilitarian, less burdened by the pressures of the art market, a truly intimate glimpse into the artist’s process. Perhaps these studies became something else; perhaps this IS its final intention? It also looks like something out of an independent comic book—before they existed as they do today! Curator: Exactly! Its value isn't in the art object, but in its ability to be mass produced with affordable and accessible material! Editor: I hadn't considered that before. Looking at the work through the lens of material availability and labor shifts my perspective completely. Thank you.