Drie portretten van vrouwen, onder wie een liggende vrouw 1900 - 1930

These three portraits of women were put together sometime in the 1800s by Ch. Reutlinger. The sepia tones remind me of old photographs, they have this faded, dreamlike quality that makes you feel like you're peering into another world. It’s like the artist took all these different images and made them into one, which is kind of like how we remember things. Looking closer, there’s something about the way the figures are framed, the light, the dark backgrounds, that makes them feel so theatrical. It's like each woman has her own story, but they're all connected somehow. I can almost imagine Reutlinger carefully cutting and arranging each image, thinking about the shapes, and how they would all fit together. It feels like a real act of care and attention. This composition makes me think of Hannah Höch, who was doing her own thing with collage, and making statements about women. Anyway, I like that these images feel so open ended, there is room for the viewer to imagine different stories.