Handwerkende vrouw 1834 - 1911

Curator: Looking at this drawing, "Handwerkende Vrouw" by Jozef Israëls, I see something intensely private, almost voyeuristic, don’t you think? It’s just pencil on paper, and the date’s somewhere between 1834 and 1911, so it's got a bit of history imbued in it. Editor: Yes, the term ‘voyeuristic’ jumps out, absolutely. It feels… fragile. The pencil lines are so tentative, barely there in places. But I immediately register that stooped posture as universally maternal, you know? All the attention and focus directed downward. Curator: Maternal for sure, but to what end? What story is the woman making? See those swirls, are those ears, of hair piled atop her head? Reminds me of when I am wrestling with a problem; knotting string to string of loose associations trying to conjure new meanings, stitch some greater answer. Editor: Indeed! The gesture of handwork – the sewing, the mending, the careful joining of separate pieces – that's powerful! I perceive an old symbol that unites all. The Fates spinning and measuring the thread of life, Penelope weaving her web… Work provides life! And a link to what came before. Curator: A lovely connection, the mythological element that makes this everyday sketch so evocative. I can't help but project that this woman could just be sat anywhere stitching; maybe it doesn't need to say everything about being maternal. The drawing style lets her spirit inhabit a blank canvas which she must then herself bring life too by filling that blankness with the fabric that provides or is broken by its need to exist through labor. Editor: But it also touches upon a particular societal… perhaps ‘burden’ is too strong a word, of course. I keep picturing all of those female figures from folklore and literature, trapped in domestic cycles, yet transforming those limits into something meaningful, something beautiful, perhaps in secret rebellion or through just an act of grace. Curator: It could go in any number of directions! And to its creator Israels' credit; the artist allowed the woman who is sewing freedom by never tying her down. He captures her quiet labor and lets others put upon herself whatever constraints exist for others while giving all possible credit to its significance at different times. Editor: What a marvelous dance of revelation and reservation this drawing creates; between seeing both woman at play but seeing her not as much. Now that’s art to make one consider and contemplate on all planes.