Twee koeien bij een hek c. 1886 - 1888

Editor: This sketch, "Two Cows Near a Fence," attributed to Anton Mauve from around 1886, is so unassuming, rendered simply in pencil on paper. There's something really honest and unadorned about it. What jumps out to you when you look at it? Curator: I'm immediately struck by the material reality of this piece. Look at the marks: the quick, repetitive strokes. This speaks to the artist’s engagement with the landscape as labor, documenting rural life and agricultural production. What can the quick, repetitive marks tell us about Mauve's experience or social class, compared to the farmers' tedious manual labor? Editor: I see what you mean. It's almost as if he’s capturing the essence of work, rather than romanticizing the cows. Could this be a comment on the changing role of agriculture at the time? Curator: Precisely! Consider the accessibility of the medium, pencil and paper. These materials are readily available. Is Mauve engaging in artmaking for an elite consumer, or a broader, perhaps emerging middle-class market? It encourages us to consider who has access to art production and consumption at this historical juncture, and how economic structures inform what artists choose to depict. Notice the detail is lavished less on the cows themselves and more on the fences that are surrounding them. What does that emphasis reveal about land ownership and enclosure practices? Editor: That makes me think about how fences physically embody ownership, control over resources, and how those structures shape the cows' world, and Mauve's! Thanks, I'll look at landscape art much differently. Curator: Indeed, and by emphasizing the means and modes of artistic production, we're better equipped to critically analyze the subject of the drawing itself!