Slapende kleuters met kat 1705 - 1768

Curator: What a delicate print! This is "Slapende kleuters met kat" – Sleeping Toddlers with Cat – an etching by Anna Folkema, likely created sometime between 1705 and 1768. The fineness of the lines is just remarkable. Editor: There's a definite sweetness here, but almost cloying, isn’t it? All that slumbering innocence offset by… a rather stout cat, it has this strange heavy gravity against the cherubic sleep of the children. Curator: I see the cat more as a protector, a symbol of domestic comfort. Cats have long been associated with guardianship. The sleep is clearly innocent, yes, but also vulnerable; the cat offers reassurance, safety, perhaps even represents a mother's watchfulness. It could symbolize the protective domestic space that these children were occupying. Editor: I’m struck by how accessible this print would have been, comparatively speaking, and think that the proliferation of etchings like these made images like these commonplace among those aspiring to gentility. It would have allowed a different class of buyers to purchase images for personal domestic settings, moving artwork into different environments than where artworks may usually be found in that time. Curator: You're right about accessibility, but that touches on another layer of symbolism. The print format itself makes this scene of domestic tranquility portable, shareable. It allowed for the dissemination of ideas about childhood and the idealized family. Those sleeping children represent, to me, innocence, yes, but also a hope for the future and family lineage. Editor: And that's the interesting material aspect of these etchings—they are both images and objects, and thus operate across economic registers beyond that of aesthetic value. In this way the production process also impacts its ability to permeate certain settings over others depending on costs of materials for each household to access. The material properties are as symbolic of a family's role or standing as its depiction of "domestic tranquility." Curator: It seems we agree that images can be tools! It’s a delightful image – peaceful but the details also give it complexity that allows people to engage beyond face value. Editor: Absolutely! It's remarkable what layers exist beneath those delicate etched lines! I like thinking about how even images of what seems domestic and restful might still suggest work in our eyes!