Lachend meisje met pop 1768 - 1796

Editor: So, this is "Lachend meisje met pop," or "Laughing Girl with Doll," by Pieter de Mare, sometime between 1768 and 1796. It's an engraving, very delicate linework. I'm struck by the missing details within the figure; it looks incomplete or ghost-like. What do you make of it? Curator: An interesting response. I see a constellation of coded gestures of status and play. The 'incomplete' aspect, as you noted, is part of it. Think about what it meant to have your portrait reproduced as a print in that era. It speaks to cultural memory, how do we choose to memorialize something? Editor: Memorialize? So, the doll isn't just a doll? Curator: The doll, her hat, the very act of portraying this child – what could these objects represent, particularly within a portrait meant for wider circulation? Children at that time were often portrayed with items signifying family lineage or societal expectations. Editor: So the doll could be a symbol of the girl's future role? Or perhaps a stand-in for the children she might one day have? Curator: Precisely. And the elaborate hat speaks to the family’s wealth. But also think of 'laughing,' it wasn’t always appropriate in portraits, it signaled wealth and abundance. This "Laughing Girl with Doll," it captures the emergence of the individual but also the symbolic constraints on her future role, rendered incomplete – pregnant with possibility. Does it shift your perspective? Editor: It does! I was so focused on the art style and technique, that I overlooked the symbolism of those images, and the context! Thank you! Curator: My pleasure, it's a rewarding thing to share those hidden symbolic worlds.