Ten figure studies 

Editor: This drawing, "Ten Figure Studies," attributed to Johann Ludwig Ernst Morgenstern, presents a collection of pencil sketches on paper. There's a spontaneous feel to it; the figures seem caught in the midst of actions. What strikes you about the material choices and their potential context? Curator: The immediate thing I notice is the emphasis on *process* through the medium. Pencil drawings, especially figure studies like these, are often associated with preparation – sketches for larger history paintings or genre scenes perhaps. It allows an artist to experiment with composition and form quickly and cheaply, but let’s consider that ‘cheaply’ isn’t the full story; what level of artistic training might enable even this quick representation? Editor: That's interesting. It makes me wonder about the social standing of someone learning these skills, and who eventually may have commissioned this… were these studies meant to remain unseen or function more as tools toward other works? Curator: Precisely! The status of the artwork is a factor of the socioeconomic class, labor and skill that come together in order to create it. Now, what is suggested by these repeated figures being finely attired noblemen in dynamic postures? Their social position affords them this ‘action,’ to perform as men of standing and nobility. This drawing then visualizes what class-based activity looks like, and further, records the artistic process as *labor*, in a commodity created from this labor that then gains its own symbolic weight. Editor: That really sheds new light on it. The sketch feels like more than just prep work now—it’s a record of both artistic skill and societal power. Curator: And considering paper itself was once a valuable commodity, it invites a deeper reading of the materials employed in this seemingly simple drawing. Editor: Right. Thinking about it that way emphasizes the labor, and class contexts that the study evokes, making it much richer. Curator: Absolutely!