Enkele schetsen van een meisje 1847 - 1904

Curator: This drawing, held here at the Rijksmuseum, is entitled "Enkele schetsen van een meisje," or "Several Sketches of a Girl" by Philip Sadée. It's a pencil drawing on paper dating from between 1847 and 1904. I’m immediately struck by its quiet intensity; the repetition of the figure almost creates a sense of movement. Editor: Yes, there’s an interesting tension between the tentative lines, suggesting a work in progress, and the subject herself, who seems to possess such resolute stillness, doesn't she? It gives the piece a real feeling of intimacy. Curator: Absolutely. The figure’s attire also stands out. She’s wearing what seems like a head covering and a fairly modest, though not unflattering, dress. In the context of the late 19th century Netherlands, one wonders about the socioeconomic class she occupied and whether her perceived quietude was a reflection of limited opportunities afforded to women of her background. The folds in the fabric hint at her movements and station, but that central, more vividly rendered figure in contrast to the sketches, really seems caught between different identities. Editor: Indeed. That head covering, it almost reads as a secularized veil, framing her face but also obscuring her individual identity. Think too of the hand gestures–they remind me of gestures in depictions of saints. She isn’t holding anything explicitly religious, but perhaps a household object, a tool of domestic labor. Curator: That's fascinating. To what extent is Sadée imbuing the quotidian with the sacred? Her dress could also reference popular Dutch period costuming depending on how his patrons and viewers interpreted the cultural politics embedded in dress during this period of nation-state consolidation. Editor: And considering that it’s a sketchbook work, this repetition… is she being honored, perhaps? Made exemplary in her ordinariness through serial reproduction, echoing centuries of artistic and social tradition? It adds another layer to this compelling drawing. The sketches lend the main figure an almost ghostly resonance. Curator: Perhaps it suggests a cycle of social or gendered performance that this woman—or women of this social status—are compelled to re-enact across time, with little variation, a somber observation given the limited social mobility experienced by some demographics. Editor: A striking reading! The pencil itself, of course, connects it to labor and sketching as an important step to finalizing artistic rendering. Even now, looking again, I notice the faint, ethereal quality of the strokes. Curator: I concur—that ethereal quality offers a window into the nuances of her history as filtered through a specific era in European and Dutch societal life. Editor: It makes one pause, definitely.