Vrouw met opgeheven armen in een bos 1865 - 1913

Editor: This pencil drawing, "Vrouw met opgeheven armen in een bos," or "Woman with Raised Arms in a Forest," is attributed to Bramine Hubrecht, and it's from somewhere between 1865 and 1913. It's currently housed at the Rijksmuseum. It has a dreamy, almost melancholic quality to it, a bit like a memory fading at the edges. What symbolic elements do you see here? Curator: The forest itself is heavy with symbolism. Across cultures, forests represent the unconscious, the untamed, a space of transformation. Consider fairy tales - what often happens to a woman in the woods? Is she lost or liberated? The raised arms are particularly interesting, acting as gestures, perhaps, of despair, of surrender, or even invocation. It makes you wonder what, if anything, is just beyond the boundaries of the forest. Editor: That makes me think of Romanticism, and the individual's relationship to nature... Curator: Exactly. Romanticism revisited nature, and the way this is treated can invoke powerful associations. What is hidden can be just as important as what is depicted, drawing us in to make these interpretations. Do you find the incompleteness of the sketch adds to the feeling? Editor: Definitely. The open-ended lines create a sense of yearning or possibility, leaving a lot to the imagination, it could symbolize how are lives are interconnected, too. I initially read the raised arms as surrender, but your suggestion of invocation has given me a whole new angle. It feels much more active and potent now. Curator: And by that new interpretation you found the image opens to the future. It is exciting to consider a shift from passive victim to an agent seeking contact. That simple alteration makes you see everything differently. Editor: I'm glad I asked!