Youth Examining his Stocking (Young Boy of the People), pl. XVI from "Recueil de caricatures" 1749 - 1759

Editor: So, this is "Youth Examining his Stocking," an engraving by Ange-Laurent de La Live de Jully, dating back to the mid-18th century. It feels...intimate, almost voyeuristic. There’s something so vulnerable about the young man caught in this moment. What strikes you when you look at this piece? Curator: Vulnerable, exactly. The lean of his posture, the almost tender focus he gives the darns, it whispers secrets of small anxieties. The composition's deceptive simplicity draws us in – just figure, shadow, block – a visual haiku for the anxieties of Rococo youth! Is he checking his fortune in his stocking? Perhaps ruefully inventorying his assets on Christmas morn? Editor: Ha! A Rococo haiku, I love that. The block he's sitting on looks so severe compared to his flowing clothes. Curator: Indeed, the rigidity throws his very humanity into sharp relief. Think about that engraver's hand patiently etching thousands of lines... that’s so like the darning process the young man does. He, like the artist, are trying to perfect and prolong this present moment and make it useful again. What's also amazing to me, given its era and medium, is that we would find our anxieties mirrored here. Editor: So, you are saying it becomes almost meditative? It’s beautiful how you connected the process with the actual subject. Curator: Yes, utterly. I find I look into it and find not some distant foppery, but a very relevant, quiet worry. Editor: That connection between subject and process… it completely reframes how I see the whole thing. Thank you! Curator: My pleasure. Perspective, like those darns in the young man's sock, is often best applied in the moment and is a good remedy for when the world wears a little thin.