Eierverkoopster uit Ochta 1765

Curator: Here we have Jean-Baptiste Leprince's "Eierverkoopster uit Ochta," or "Egg Seller from Ochta," created around 1765. This engaging image employs the printmaking technique of engraving. Editor: My first impression is this…almost idealized simplicity. The neutral tones emphasize the natural materials, the texture of the basket against the girl’s rustic dress. Curator: The egg seller carries echoes of the past – rural genre scenes, especially Dutch paintings depicting everyday life, come to mind, a clear Baroque lineage. There is a focus on narrative with an embedded symbolism: eggs, obviously, connect to concepts of birth and spring. The very name of Ochta resonates faintly in Russian Orthodoxy as a variant of Okhta—itself symbolic of renewal! Editor: Interesting you say that! For me, the value resides within the materiality of labor. This isn’t a generalized, timeless maiden. The artist is consciously choosing to represent specific work and locale; he’s etching lines that define social class and commerce, however gently. Look closely, we notice marks left in the paper, an index of the artist laboriously cutting in and making many versions. Curator: Still, there's something staged about it. Her pose is deliberately simple, but that simplicity creates an effect—it’s an effect designed to represent a kind of innocence and humble work, one far removed from Leprince’s likely sophisticated circles. It evokes a powerful, lingering vision of pre-industrial Russia. Editor: I find the labor that produces it interesting. And that the image can be reproduced widely after its making – and be held or used for inspiration or many purposes, too. What a contrast in production, from that rustic landscape of a single egg seller. Curator: Well, I find myself thinking about all the layers of imagery connecting her to archetypes of young womanhood... What stories this girl may represent to a knowing viewer, beyond merely a purveyor of humble wares! Editor: So much for us to digest when approaching what seems to be just one image!