Schetsboek met 23 bladen c. 1895

Editor: So, here we have a sketchbook with 23 leaves by Carel Adolph Lion Cachet, dating from around 1895. It looks like it’s mixed media on paper. It’s… brown. What do you see in this piece? Curator: What I see is a coded artifact of a particular moment in artistic production, one still heavily dominated by a patriarchal and colonial gaze. Think about what a sketchbook represents: intimate, private thoughts, experiments, and preliminary ideas. Whose ideas were deemed valuable enough to record and preserve in this era? Editor: So you're saying this seemingly simple sketchbook reflects larger societal power dynamics? Curator: Exactly! Cachet, as a white, male artist, benefitted from structures that valued and legitimized his perspective. How might the contents of this sketchbook reinforce or challenge those structures? Who was this artist and who were his audience? Was it for self, for students or for patrons? Editor: I hadn't considered it that way. I was just thinking about the materials, the texture. Curator: And that tactility matters. The 'hand' of the artist, often fetishized, is right here in this object. But whose hands *didn’t* get to create these types of records? What voices were silenced or never given the resources to explore their own artistic impulses on paper? Editor: That’s a really important point. It makes you think about all the untold stories and perspectives we’ve missed. Curator: Absolutely. Even a seemingly neutral object like this sketchbook is laden with meaning when we consider the historical context and power dynamics at play. Editor: Wow, I will definitely look at sketchbooks differently from now on! Thanks.