Fan 1825 - 1835

Editor: This decorative fan, dating from between 1825 and 1835, currently resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The landscape and figures are so delicately painted! How do you interpret this work, especially considering its function as a fan? Curator: This piece, while seemingly a decorative object, invites us to consider the performative aspects of identity in the 19th century. Think about who would have owned and used this fan. What does the landscape, the figures, their attire suggest about class, gender roles, and societal expectations? Editor: I guess I hadn't thought about it like that, more as a pretty scene than a social statement. So you're saying the act of using the fan, and the imagery on it, were both carefully constructed forms of communication? Curator: Precisely. A fan was a tool of flirtation, of subtle signaling, of controlling one's personal climate in a literal and metaphorical sense. The figures depicted here might evoke the idealized leisure of the landed gentry, perpetuating narratives of privilege. Whose stories aren't being told here? Editor: I see what you mean. It's almost like a carefully curated performance of wealth and status, both through the object itself and how it was used. The romanticized landscape further reinforces that ideal. Curator: Exactly. And isn't it interesting to consider how "decorative art" often served to reinforce existing power structures? Perhaps these fans played a small part in maintaining a specific social order, one elegant flutter at a time. Editor: It's fascinating to think of something so seemingly innocent as a potential vehicle for upholding social norms. I'll definitely look at decorative arts differently now! Curator: I'm glad to have sparked that for you. The mundane objects are full of social constructs!