Hvile i engen. Kunstnerens hustru og børn 1909

Editor: Here we have Joakim Skovgaard’s “Resting in the Meadow. The Artist's Wife and Children,” painted in 1909. It looks like an intimate family moment rendered in oil paint on canvas. The composition and loose brushstrokes give the work a casual and comfortable vibe. What strikes you when you look at this piece? Curator: What immediately grabs me is how the materiality reflects a burgeoning bourgeois leisure class. This scene depicts leisure, but more importantly, considers its *means*. Note the fabrics--linen, likely--and the simple acts occupying them, picking at straw, arranging flowers. Editor: I see, so the scene isn't just *of* leisure, but also highlights its connection to available resources. Curator: Precisely. Skovgaard’s application of oil paint also directs our attention to labor. Quick brushstrokes almost obscure the subjects and are reminiscent of Impressionism, but there is an inherent practicality here: quick application likely mirroring quick, on-site creation, enabled by industrialized production and ease of transportation of his materials. Does that reading change your perception of "comfortable"? Editor: It does somewhat. I was seeing the painting as a snapshot of domestic bliss, but your focus on the materiality makes me aware of how consumerism plays into it, and the art-making process too. Curator: Consider also the consumption of these images. They reinforced, and still do, a certain lifestyle as aspirational and normal. Editor: So, in looking at the materiality of this piece and the lifestyle it depicts, we also have to think about how that connects to larger issues of labor and consumption, even today. Curator: Precisely. And by considering how materials influence this work we come away with new insight.