Twee kinderen spelend met een pop op een terras 1727

Curator: Right in front of us we have "Two Children Playing with a Doll on a Terrace", an engraving by François Joullain, dating back to 1727. What do you make of this scene? Editor: It feels very staged, almost like a miniature royal portrait, despite being an ostensibly playful moment. Curator: Precisely! Joullain often worked in the portrait style, and we can see that influence even here, can't we? How these children and even their dolls, are so consciously posed against what appears to be a small rendering of an ancient landscape. It begs the question what narratives about the ruling class he is trying to depict? Editor: Absolutely, and it's impossible to ignore the social context. Engravings like these were mass produced, shaping societal values. It's an idealised view of childhood for the elite, carefully constructed and consumed. Look how their dresses shimmer with incredible texture! All created with carefully engraved marks. What kind of labor that kind of art and adornment costs... Curator: It's a clever paradox, really. These children, symbols of innocence and freedom, are depicted within this rigid frame, these elaborate dresses...and the print itself speaks to a particular mode of artistic production for a particular kind of social group. It makes you wonder how authentic that era's depictions of leisure really were. Editor: Definitely. The contrast of their innocence with such an ostentatious setting is very jarring. This really brings forth the staged nature of class itself. These artworks remind us how much society shapes our ideas of who should and should not have access to what. Curator: Looking at it now, I find that staging a bit tragic, actually. Such heavy, ornamented clothing and ornate gardens almost act like a prison made of refinement. Editor: Indeed, the art reveals so much more than just a simple image. It's a window into how society operates, what it values, and what it conceals. Curator: And sometimes, in what seems so refined, we find something a bit stifling.