Study, Good Friends 1883

Curator: Alright, let’s turn our attention to this drawing by Albert Edelfelt, titled “Study, Good Friends,” from 1883. He executed this delicate sketch using pen and ink. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: It feels intimate, like a stolen moment. The girl engrossed in her book, the casual way she's sprawled, it's very unassuming. Like capturing a fleeting glimpse of something precious. Makes me think of afternoons reading when I was little…lost in a different world. Curator: That feeling of intimacy is heightened, I think, by Edelfelt’s process. You can really see the hand of the artist here, in the quick, sure strokes of the pen. The very visible mark-making invites a kind of…familiarity. It underscores the labor, the human element involved in the creation of the piece. It's interesting, isn't it, how that labour results in portraying someone *at leisure*? Editor: Absolutely. And the limited palette, the black and white, somehow focuses the attention even more. Makes the mind wander, creates so many opportunities for a kind of dreamy feeling to invade…like old photos…or memories you almost forget, but then resurface. It's less about what is there, but all these little fragments that could be true. It also feels really…sketchbooky. I can see how this work comes directly from the artist's thought process as he envisions a finished work of art, how interesting that he left it in such a bare and natural form! Curator: The artist choosing to display the underpinnings of art's manufacture is part of a broader Realist sensibility, wouldn’t you say? Editor: True, yes. There's a rawness to that realism…an appealing lack of pretense. Like…'here I am; take it or leave it'. I wonder, what kind of a reading experience does the drawing offer about girls and reading? Is it a portrait of innocence, of immersion? Is the girl a representation of 'women and books' that later on are more politically addressed? It definitely makes me question those traditional depictions and gives a nod towards contemporary approaches. Curator: It also brings to the foreground how the artist saw and rendered the very *idea* of study in the first place. Was this made for display or simply part of his process? Considering materiality opens the door for us to appreciate labor and Edelfelt's social practice. Editor: Exactly! The beauty, or a big part of the appeal, lies in its honesty and accessibility. I am fond of this piece! I want to sit alongside this girl! Curator: Indeed. There’s an accessibility here, which I suspect has to do with the straightforwardness in how the artist employs his medium, how the scene is portrayed, and in the apparent casualness that might allow one to appreciate Edelfelt’s skill in crafting something special from a seemingly mundane genre scene.