Toilet van een jonge vrouw 1771

Editor: So, this is "Toilet van een jonge vrouw" by Willem Joseph Laquy, created around 1771 using watercolor. There's a real stillness to it, almost like we're peeking into a private moment. What captures your eye when you look at it? Curator: It's that intimate tableau you mentioned, definitely. But it also makes me think of whispers of a hidden narrative, you know? Like we've stumbled onto a stage set just before the actors launch into a play, rife with gossip and powdered wigs, just on the cusp of something titillating! The very concept of a "toilet," or toilette, at the time, involved much more than washing - it was a performance in itself, all about artifice and public image. How does that interplay between public performance and private ritual strike you? Editor: That's interesting! I hadn’t really considered the performance aspect of it, more the quiet intimacy of the moment. Now that you mention the hidden narrative and that the setting is theatrical, it is as if the stage has been prepared before the beginning of something dramatic. What would the drama entail, in your mind? Curator: Exactly! Who knows, really? Perhaps a forbidden love affair, some secret liaison... something rather naughty. The beauty of it is that Laquy leaves us to fill in the blanks, to embroider our own scandalous little tales. That's Rococo for you - a playful invitation into a world of delightful ambiguities. The mischievous Cherubs and a very pampered house-dog are clear signifiers! Editor: This conversation made me rethink my initial impressions. It really shifted how I saw it! Curator: Same! These fleeting impressions we pick up...aren't they marvelous things? Art keeps surprising.