Twee pelikanen aan de waterkant 1884 - 1952

Curator: Oh, look, here’s “Two Pelicans at the Water’s Edge” by Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries. It's somewhere between 1884 and 1952, done with ink on paper, very minimal. Editor: It makes me feel… zen? Like those little scenes you find painted on porcelain. There’s this understated calm; all straight lines and curved bodies. Curator: Well, de Vries seemed deeply drawn to Orientalism, which explains a lot. He plays with flatness, right? Creates a shallow depth. It's less about naturalistic representation and more about conveying an essence. We are drawn into its graphic form. Editor: I can totally see the Orientalism showing up! It feels less about the nitty-gritty reality of the pelicans, and more about turning them into almost emblems, like characters in an old story. Notice how few lines he uses? And how strategic their placement is? It has a powerful quality. Curator: Absolutely. Semiotically, we see how the artist uses simplified forms. He draws on the conventions of Japanese prints – ukiyo-e—which favoured flat, graphic design and stylized depictions of nature. Think of the symbolism there. Birds near water always hint at purification or a kind of spiritual cleansing. It goes very deep. Editor: It’s kind of a double-whammy of calm, right? You've got the pelicans just chilling and existing near a body of water, then you also have the actual technique creating this Zen effect that has all these allusions to the symbolism you mentioned. It all folds in on itself. I would consider it a "two for one deal." Curator: And there’s also this sense of design that overtakes reality. What I mean by this, in this drawing, is this urge for abstraction which simplifies our reading into more stylized and purified signs of their animal reality. Editor: It makes me consider just how much the composition itself dictates its impact. I think de Vries tapped into something ancient—universal symbols with his ink. Curator: It does make you feel thoughtful, this small vignette from a long time ago! Editor: For me it conjures stories and legends, even!