Outdoor Scene of Women in Domestic Activities in Nurnberg, 1800 - 1822

Curator: It’s rather striking, this print. So full of light and activity! Editor: Indeed. What we have here is Johann Christoph Erhard's "Outdoor Scene of Women in Domestic Activities in Nurnberg," made sometime between 1800 and 1822. It’s currently housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The detail is fascinating when you consider it’s a drawing that’s then been reproduced. Curator: The labor is visible, isn't it? All these women engaged in their washing, and the materiality of it all - the rough cloth, the water… You can almost feel the dampness in the air. But more than the scene itself, I wonder about the politics of observation here, and the implied audience consuming it. Editor: A carefully constructed genre scene for the viewing public, definitely. Prints like this were key to circulating ideas about domesticity and social order. I mean, note the sharp distinction between the enclosed urban space and open grounds where domestic labor unfolds so openly! Curator: Absolutely. Look at the varied activities; they portray domestic work. However, there is an idealization at play. I wonder, how readily available were Erhard's art making materials to everyone depicted? Whose labour truly benefits from this representation? It’s definitely telling. Editor: It reminds us how representations, even seemingly simple ones, reinforce social hierarchies. Consider the institutions that collect and display works like this, who had power in shaping interpretations, legitimising certain activities? Curator: The walls, the clothing lines hanging as backdrops - there are so many layers embedded in Erhard's detailed linework that connect private effort and public display. Editor: Erhard captured the relationship between individuals, their immediate environment and larger forces operating to create visual accounts for public consumption. A small work, but not lacking of insightful narrative to prompt much larger dialogues. Curator: Ultimately, through process and medium, we see history through a certain lens, and we can perhaps understand its conditions of construction by acknowledging the role the materiality itself plays.