Opmetingen en aantekeningen van het Huis Peking te Baarn 

Editor: Here we have "Opmetingen en aantekeningen van het Huis Peking te Baarn," a drawing in ink on paper by David-Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville. It looks like a set of architectural plans, or maybe a landscape design, filled with geometric shapes and handwritten notes. It gives me the impression of something functional rather than purely artistic. What stands out to you? Curator: What immediately captures my attention is the use of a plan. Architectural renderings like these circulated within a specific socio-economic class: owners of property who required their landscapes to conform to increasingly geometrical ideals. In many ways this is a power play enacted in visual form: this person *commands* the land, literally imposing their lines upon it. This begs the question: How might the socio-economic context of the Baarn region influence the reception of this “Peking House" in its own era? Editor: So you're saying the geometric layout shows the power dynamics of the time? Curator: Precisely. Land ownership was frequently associated with privilege, as the plan showcases. Notice how the plan doesn't convey function but control. I wonder how the locals felt about some wealthy landowner’s bizarre folly, given that "Peking" and "Baarn" stand in such stark contrast, geographically and culturally. What message does it send? Editor: That's a different perspective than I initially considered. The drawing becomes a symbol of cultural imposition. Curator: Exactly. And isn’t it interesting that even the notes are quite terse. How much information, or power, is deliberately withheld, I wonder. Editor: I never would have looked at this as something representing control before. Thank you! Curator: And thank you; this reflection reinforces how art reflects, and often reinforces, specific social structures.