Figure Studies, including Seated Man from Behind and Standing Woman with Headdress c. 19th century

Curator: This tiny drawing, about the size of a postage stamp, is titled "Figure Studies, including Seated Man from Behind and Standing Woman with Headdress" by Rodolphe Bresdin. Editor: It feels like a fleeting dream, these figures so quickly sketched. There is such vulnerability and strangeness to them, though. Curator: Bresdin was a printmaker and draughtsman in 19th-century France, and he was admired by figures like Baudelaire. These figures may be studies for larger works, or perhaps autonomous explorations of human forms. Editor: Note how the standing woman echoes images of Justice or Fortune, yet her crossed arms and expression suggest something more personal, internal. She isn't a straightforward symbol. Curator: Right, and the seated man, slumped on his stool, offers a counterpoint—more earthy and immediate. Bresdin uses the symbolic language of the time, but he's twisting it. Editor: Indeed. Together, they evoke a sense of the uncanny—familiar yet profoundly unsettling. Curator: It really makes you wonder what stories Bresdin intended to tell.