Staand meisje dat haar rok optilt 1803 - 1842

Curator: This pencil sketch is titled "Standing Girl Lifting Her Skirt," crafted sometime between 1803 and 1842 by Anthonie Willem Hendrik Nolthenius de Man. What catches your eye first? Editor: Immediately, it’s this feeling of fragile quiet. A secret moment, almost caught by chance. The girl, the very lightness of the pencil… there’s an ephemeral quality I find quite striking. Curator: It’s fascinating how such simple materials and techniques can evoke such specific sensations. The lifted skirt, for instance. Do you see any symbolism? Is it innocence or something else? Editor: I like to think of it as… anticipatory. She’s on the verge of something, about to step into… perhaps adulthood, maybe just a puddle. Who knows? I also love the cap, suggesting domesticity and perhaps hidden depths beneath. Curator: Caps indeed, are a rich element across portraiture, signaling diverse codes. As for the act of lifting a skirt—especially in the Romanticism style prevalent here—it could signify modesty, perhaps a desire for freedom, and certainly, a connection to the natural world. Editor: See, I was getting all imaginative, but there you go with the smarty-pants art history! But seriously, what's truly amazing is the sketch's incompleteness; its power resides not in what is meticulously depicted, but in what’s suggested. Isn’t that the trick of art, to conjure more than you actually show? Curator: That very sense of suggestion resonates profoundly with our human tendencies toward pattern-seeking and completion, no? Editor: Right! The artwork lets us pour in our own narrative, making the girl, that space in-between… our space too. The picture becomes us too. So cool. Curator: Agreed. Thank you, this work gives much food for thought, especially around identity and transition. Editor: Thanks! As you pointed out, with all its potential narratives this "Standing Girl" reminds us how little glimpses, and slight actions can become rich, complex portraits, both of someone else, and even of ourselves.