[title not known] Verso: Sketch 

Curator: Here we have a sketch, currently without a title, by Elizabeth Rigby, dating from about the mid-19th century. It's held in the Tate collections. Editor: The sepia tones give it an almost dreamlike quality. The composition is arresting, a blend of solidity and ethereality. Curator: Rigby, later Lady Eastlake, moved in circles that debated the role of women in art. This sketch, in its subtle rendering, seems to capture something of the restrictive roles placed on women and motherhood. Editor: The interplay of light and shadow on the figures’ drapery creates a dynamic surface. Note how line and form define their positions in space. Curator: Precisely. Consider this in the context of Victorian society: the Madonna-like figure of the mother, contrasted with the man, perhaps weighed down by societal expectations. Editor: This tension, between the material and the symbolic, enhances the work's complexity. Curator: It shows the artist grappling with conventions of her time. Editor: A fascinating display of aesthetic and conceptual interplay.