Schetsblad met zittend schoolmeisje 1874 - 1945

Editor: Here we have Carel Adolph Lion Cachet's "Schetsblad met zittend schoolmeisje," a mixed-media drawing created sometime between 1874 and 1945. It's currently held at the Rijksmuseum. The delicate lines and the girl's direct gaze are really striking. What strikes you when you look at it? Curator: The immediacy of the drawing is definitely powerful. I'm interested in how Cachet uses such economical means - primarily pencil - to convey a sense of fleeting observation. Considering its time, how does the piece engage with emerging ideas about education and social structures of its era? Editor: So, are you seeing this less as just a portrait and more as a commentary on the place of children in society? Curator: Exactly. We can think about who had access to art materials, or, who even had the time and resources to engage in leisure activities like sketching. Cachet is using fairly accessible media. Does the seemingly casual nature of the sketch suggest a shift from formal portraiture to something more intimate and accessible? Editor: It could imply that the artist is experimenting with form, right? Instead of laboring over a very perfect painting, they used pencil to try to convey that intimate experience of observing children as they went about the work of learning, or resisting learning, as it appears here. Curator: Precisely. We need to think critically about not only how the artist portrays the children in this sketch, but how this very sketch gives us access to broader understanding of Cachet’s practice in thinking through art. What else can we extract from this work in considering art as labor, process and its material implications? Editor: That is a new and great point of view that I had not considered. The quickness and seeming simplicity might actually be a comment in itself! Curator: Absolutely, art can reflect production, challenging conventional norms.