Gelegenheidsgedicht over een uitstapje naar Hattem c. 1661

Curator: What strikes me immediately is the fading quality of the ink, almost as if the poem itself is vanishing. There’s something quite poignant about that visual effect. Editor: Indeed. We are looking at "Gelegenheidsgedicht over een uitstapje naar Hattem," a handwritten poem about a trip to Hattem created around 1661 by Gesina ter Borch. It's ink on paper and currently held at the Rijksmuseum. Ter Borch was known for her meticulous record-keeping and visual chronicles of daily life. Curator: The lettering is beautiful. The flourishes and the varied weight of the strokes suggest a confident, practiced hand. Was calligraphy typically associated with women at the time? I imagine access to education and artistic training would have been deeply stratified. Editor: Absolutely. Calligraphy, while seemingly decorative, played a critical role in both personal and political expression during the Dutch Golden Age. Literacy rates among women, though lower than men, were rising within certain social classes, allowing for a vibrant culture of female authorship. Ter Borch came from a family of artists and intellectuals who likely encouraged her talents. These skills weren't just about aesthetics, of course; handwriting directly connects to agency in communication. Curator: So, considering it within the context of family and female artistic circles shifts it from just a charming, antiquated poem into something potentially subversive. Do you see any thematic currents in her poem? Editor: While seemingly a lighthearted account of an excursion, consider the broader significance of women documenting their experiences at a time when their voices were often marginalized. Travel itself became a form of social commentary, a space to challenge conventions or subtly critique prevailing societal attitudes. Perhaps what reads to us as just a poem may be rooted in personal and social meaning from ter Borch's lived experience as a woman and an artist. Curator: I never looked at calligraphy as social practice before, rather as a formal aspect of this drawing. Now I consider its intersection with the maker’s life, opening exciting possibilities of interpreting artworks through biography and feminism. Editor: Exactly. Context is key to unlocking such histories and seeing how political ideologies are woven into the seemingly innocuous.