Stoeltjesklok 1860 - 1921

Editor: So, this pencil drawing is titled "Stoeltjesklok," or "Hooded Clock," by Adolf le Comte, dating from around 1860 to 1921. It feels like a quick sketch of a domestic space. There's a lot of linear detail but little shading, which gives it a somewhat ghostly or ephemeral quality. How do you interpret this work, especially given its seeming simplicity? Curator: The drawing appears to capture more than just the objects within the frame; it is suggestive of class and gender. Consider how a 'hooded clock' anchors the space. This wasn't just a time-telling device, but a symbol of bourgeois domesticity. Placed next to kitchenalia, the sketch collapses functional spaces with status symbols. I wonder, what statement, subtle or sharp, is Comte making? Editor: That’s an interesting reading. I hadn't considered the status implications of the clock so explicitly, and the arrangement indeed puts different spaces together. What about the fact that it's a drawing – a study – and not a finished painting? Curator: Exactly! It opens a lot more. A drawing, a draft: is it a glimpse into the working life of the artisan class, or a reflection on the commodification of their art through such furniture as the clock? Perhaps it's both! The sketch as a medium reveals a critical and unresolved tension within 19th century social movements. Editor: So, the very incompleteness becomes part of its meaning, and an indication that many conversations around labor, the working class and wealth disparity during that era, remain open. I'm left pondering the relationships between the artisan, art, and the market. Curator: Precisely. It prompts questions rather than offering answers. An invitation to reconsider the intersections between domesticity, labor, and class, presented through the simple depiction of everyday objects.