En falden piges biografi. Nr. 3 1811

Curator: Looking at this 1811 engraving, "En falden piges biografi. Nr. 3" or, “A Fallen Girl’s Biography, No. 3” by Gerhard Ludvig Lahde, one gets the impression of voyeurism—observing an intimate, private moment. Editor: Yes, an unguarded glimpse. The woman's pose is both vulnerable and strangely assertive. It is also impossible not to see all the undergarments hanging above her head. Curator: Lahde presents a genre scene here, rich in implied narrative. We see the fallen woman at her toilette; the remnants of breakfast upon the table. Her life on display. Editor: It’s more than just a glimpse, though. Lahde clearly painstakingly uses ink to render not only this intimate portrait but all the materiality within her humble surroundings. Look at the tools and implements of this intimate grooming process; all are equally weighted. There's almost an egalitarian rendering here. Curator: Exactly! Note how the romantic style balances the harshness of the subject. This line engraving offers us beauty within squalor, almost. The light touch belies the harsh reality of this woman’s predicament. What are your thoughts? Editor: I suppose the process of engraving, line by painstaking line, elevates the material reality. Her dress, rumpled and creased, becomes worthy of attention. The making of art, here, renders a life. What did it mean for Lahde to meticulously produce images, mechanically reproducible images, about the production and mechanical, arguably even, reproduction of labor in this woman's life. Curator: It asks the viewer to pause and think, to not judge and see things through new eyes, perhaps to realize their own place and judgement in relation to all women then and in all women’s biographies today. Editor: Indeed. I hadn’t thought about that before. Seeing this focus on the materials of everyday life, particularly on this fallen woman’s tools and garments, is really illuminating. Curator: I concur completely. Seeing her existence as one of raw material, she gains a strength not obvious before. Editor: Indeed. And maybe this allows us all to rethink the possibilities for what women do with their life's materiality today.