Vrouw bij een waslijn c. 1897 - 1910

Curator: Willem Witsen’s "Vrouw bij een waslijn," or "Woman at a Clothesline," dating from around 1897 to 1910, is currently housed right here at the Rijksmuseum. It's a delicate piece, rendered in pencil on paper. Editor: It has a certain melancholic charm, doesn't it? Almost like a faded memory sketched in time. The sketchy lines give it a fleeting, transient quality, as if the moment itself might disappear if you blink. Curator: Exactly. There’s a real intimacy to it. You almost feel like you're intruding on a private moment. The woman, bent over, preoccupied with her task, embodies the everyday labour so often rendered invisible. What does this labour mean in this piece? Editor: Absolutely. When you think about it, laundry is, for so many women, and especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, not merely a domestic chore, but also symbolizes the repetitive, often unacknowledged work that underpins the patriarchal structure of society. This seemingly simple sketch unveils that. It invites us to think critically about the intersectional layers of gender, labor, and visibility. Curator: He definitely captures a certain slice of Dutch life, yet there’s a kind of abstraction there, too. Not a photograph, you know? More like the *feeling* of laundry day, the air thick with moisture and unspoken stories. You get it. Editor: Indeed, there is definitely more than a feeling in Witsen's rendering, especially as this pen sketch creates space to delve into questions about identity and social status. The medium enhances the message, as we contemplate a space for ourselves as women in society, represented in this particular domestic depiction. Curator: It makes you wonder about the narratives embedded within ordinary tasks. Editor: Right? It forces us to reimagine what "important" subjects are, both for that time and for our own. Curator: A brief, ephemeral meditation. Makes you appreciate the power of small moments, sketched onto the page, and into our memories. Editor: And a potent reminder of the laboring bodies who sustained worlds. Definitely makes you appreciate seeing it afresh.