Zwei ineinandergelegte rechte Hände, mit Andeutung einer Frauenfigur 

Curator: Looking at this sketch, titled "Zwei ineinandergelegte rechte Hände, mit Andeutung einer Frauenfigur," housed here at the Städel Museum and attributed to Victor Müller, one is immediately struck by the central motif. Editor: Yes, the way the clasped hands command your attention despite the surrounding figure being barely sketched, makes it both vulnerable and intense. There's an unvarnished, almost work-in-progress quality due to the materials. What appears to be graphite, chalk and pencil have all been used on toned paper, each offering a slightly different finish and shade, a variety of material explorations which serve to pull my eyes here and there. Curator: Absolutely, the clasped hands… It’s an enduring image, hands entwined signifying trust, maybe love, unity and a form of solace but also subjugation; often appearing as a symbolic image through history to signify binding contracts between individuals, relationships, groups and people. Editor: Given how much more rendered the hands are than the barely sketched-in figure of the woman, could this be Müller foregrounding the material and emotional exchange implied through touch and labor over idealized forms of womanhood? Is it that, what it takes to hold, make, maintain something or someone being just as important to showcase as the finished creation? Curator: That’s an interesting material point. The act of making here as a focus, more than the final polish of portraiture or idealized form, the symbolic meaning remains. Look how that stark contrast creates that sense of unfinished yearning, and raw connection. It brings attention to what can or can't be represented or controlled. Editor: So what may seem initially like a preliminary study, or a ‘lesser’ work perhaps becomes in its open construction, a window into how forms come to being and become iconic representations themselves. It asks, I feel, to reconsider what gives meaning to something, process or final presentation? Curator: The sketch, this window…yes, seeing it like this deepens our understanding of Müller, doesn't it? Editor: Indeed.