Market women in Zurich c. 1771 - 1772

Georg Melchior Kraus made this watercolour drawing, *Market Women in Zurich*, sometime in the 18th century. The composition, sparse as it is, directs our gaze towards three figures arranged across a shallow foreground. Notice how Kraus uses a limited palette, focusing on muted blues, greys, and browns, which lends a somber tone to the everyday scene. The arrangement of the figures in a horizontal line, along with the minimal background, flattens the picture plane, emphasizing the surface and materiality of the paper. The women, each engaged in her own activity—one holding a chicken, another tending to a basket, and the third leaning on a cane—seem disconnected, caught in individual spheres. This prompts us to consider the nature of representation itself. Are these figures types or individuals? Does the artist's attention to the surface and his subdued palette invite us to question the transparency of representation, and to acknowledge the artifice inherent in any attempt to capture reality? The work's formal qualities invite us to reflect on the act of seeing and representing, suggesting that art is not merely a reflection of reality, but an active construction of meaning.