Vrouw met een voorwerp in haar handen, mogelijk een emmer c. 1888s

Curator: This pencil and charcoal drawing, "Vrouw met een voorwerp in haar handen, mogelijk een emmer" – "Woman with an object in her hands, possibly a bucket" – was created around the 1880s by Willem Witsen and now resides in the Rijksmuseum. Editor: I love how sparse it is! The empty space kind of hums, doesn’t it? Like a whispered secret. I’m immediately struck by the woman's stillness, her anonymity, and, honestly, a sort of melancholic beauty. Curator: Melancholy, absolutely. Consider the historical context: late 19th-century Netherlands. We are amidst immense social changes, industrialization, and urbanization disrupting traditional ways of life. Witsen, aligning with the Hague School, often depicted everyday life, especially its more somber aspects. The woman's stance, averted gaze, could represent the burdens faced by working-class women. Editor: A burden, yes, you see it in the slump of her shoulders and also the shadow, or rather, lack of shadow...she seems to have no dimension in this existence of hers. Curator: The lack of detail actually amplifies that feeling, doesn't it? Witsen focuses on form and light rather than precise features, universalizing her experience, she almost ceases to be a real women here. Editor: Yes! It feels as if she belongs to a world of quiet resignation, perhaps carrying burdens both physical and emotional. Curator: And there’s a socio-political dimension to this "quiet resignation," think of labor exploitation during the Dutch Golden Age, also the intersectional oppressions facing women in that social context. Her stillness then transforms into an act of resilience or perhaps an unintentional consequence of the systems she navigated. Editor: Or maybe she’s just off to get some water, hahaha! That's the beauty, though, isn’t it? An open question. It really encourages our interaction with the scene; it allows us to dream our own reality onto the sparse strokes of this humble charcoal. Curator: And it's in that engagement, connecting to those realities across time, that art truly lives. Editor: Beautifully put. I guess it’s all about what bucket we are drawing from.