Liggend meisje en twee koppen van kinderen c. 1905 - 1910

Curator: At the Rijksmuseum, we have a pencil drawing on paper by Carel Adolph Lion Cachet, titled "Liggend meisje en twee koppen van kinderen," dating roughly from 1905 to 1910. Editor: It feels intimate, almost voyeuristic, peering into a private moment. There’s something melancholy, perhaps, in the stark simplicity of the lines. Curator: The composition certainly suggests a kind of psychological distance, doesn't it? Notice how Cachet renders each figure with varying degrees of completion. The reclining girl is relatively more defined, while the two disembodied heads seem almost like fleeting thoughts or projections. Editor: Projections! Exactly. It's as if they’re dreamscapes bubbling up around her. The upside-down head... it's like looking into the mirror, facing your shadow self. Curator: Interesting interpretation. Semiotically, the inversion disrupts conventional representation. One might also consider the formal properties—the repetition of oval shapes, the strategic use of negative space—in fostering a sense of unease and uncertainty. Editor: Unease is spot on. It’s not quite discomfort, but a delicate whisper of…loss? Childhood fleeting, perhaps, and Cachet attempting to catch it with the humble pencil. Curator: The choice of medium reinforces that sense of impermanence. Pencil allows for erasure, revision, a direct engagement with the creative process—making visible the very act of image-making. Editor: You know, sometimes I wonder if Cachet meant for us to see it? Like we're looking through his sketchbook... seeing not a finished piece, but a captured thought...an ephemeral vision that makes this artwork alive. Curator: Precisely, which also helps us to question our expectations surrounding artistic "finish". A very good point, I must admit. Editor: Glad to have enlightened, this drawing, for me, will stay forever, this ghostly record of childhood. Curator: I concur. A remarkable piece, challenging the very notions of portraiture and representation. Thank you for sharing that.