De eerste stap door Robert Cauer 1850 - 1900

Curator: This photograph captures a sculpture titled "De eerste stap", or "The First Step," by Robert Cauer, made sometime between 1850 and 1900. It’s rendered in gelatin silver print, part of a larger project of reproducing artworks for wider consumption. What strikes you most about it? Editor: Initially, I feel a sense of immense tenderness, almost fragile. The monochromatic tones soften the image. It's intimate, like stumbling upon a quiet, private moment. The older child, presumably a sister, appears incredibly protective and guiding. Curator: It's interesting you say that. Reproduction prints like this democratized art viewing. It allowed middle-class families to bring artistic and often morally instructive scenes into their homes, didn’t it? The idea of a virtuous sibling guiding a younger one was hugely popular. Editor: Absolutely, and Cauer has managed to imbue it with this idealized purity. Look at the textures in the photographic print: it’s capturing the supposed smoothness and coldness of marble. What isn’t tangible on viewing a print versus the sculpture itself are scale, material and touch, the very things which would further impact its presence in the space. I imagine this small photographic work might almost have a kind of magic lantern quality to it. Curator: I see what you mean; like a carefully staged tableau. Also note the plain background. There is nothing to distract from the central motif of nascent independence under watchful guidance. This reinforces the era's emphasis on childhood innocence and careful nurturing. It makes the image more didactic and underscores a bourgeois sensibility centered on progress and family life. Editor: Didactic yet very evocative. As a photo it pulls at something within the realm of sentimentality, this idealized notion of siblingship. It prompts me to think, where and when was "my" first step? What were my surroundings? My sibling figures or family? It almost has an uncanny afterimage effect that tugs at your memories. Curator: Yes, the print performs a vital function; It freezes and repeats an incredibly transitory but fundamental moment, transforming it into something timeless that can be reflected upon for generations. The image really embodies a desire to immortalize a key development moment in one's childhood, whilst teaching it along the way. Editor: Absolutely, and with it, the image, in turn, lives beyond its materiality to touch us through our shared humanness. The first step as one of the symbolic acts of freedom in one's development, which will inevitably tug at anyone's heartstrings who has loved someone in that mode.