Peter Marks met zijn eerste en zijn tweede vrouw 1779

Curator: Let's turn our attention to Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki's 1779 engraving, “Peter Marks met zijn eerste en zijn tweede vrouw.” It’s currently housed in the Rijksmuseum. What springs to mind for you? Editor: Immediately, I notice the domesticity of it all. The cramped, patterned walls and heavy bedding of what looks like an affluent household…but the feeling is one of melancholic enclosure, wouldn’t you agree? Curator: Oh, absolutely. Chodowiecki has this uncanny knack for capturing the human condition, almost like observing a private stage play. This piece specifically makes me consider what it means to navigate multiple relationships, a certain tenderness combined with inescapable… loss, maybe? Editor: Indeed. And looking at the craftsmanship—the meticulous hatching to create depth, the delicate lines describing fabrics—it becomes clear that this isn't just a scene but a carefully constructed reality, designed to provoke contemplation on marriage as an economic structure and its labor dynamics in the 18th century. The prints made these images very reproducible commodities too. Curator: That makes perfect sense. One can almost hear the scratching of the copper plate as he was carving this romantic little drama. It’s all so… intimate. The first panel depicts a rather suffocating embrace between Peter and presumably, his first wife, in very ornate dresses; while the other portrays, his second with almost resentful gaze fixing to a bed, tending to the poor lap dog. Editor: Right! Note the emphasis placed on the interior setting. Each little detail - the bedside baskets, dress fabrics - functions almost like a material witness, narrating stories about production and the societal expectations thrust upon women during this era. There’s very little nature in this scene – its domestic, and manufactured, down to the wallpapers. Curator: Precisely! The emotional baggage of domestic roles becomes palpable. You can practically smell the beeswax and lavender in that room. It’s all deeply atmospheric, but so subtly executed, a testament to his gift. Editor: The tension between the intended romanticism and the sheer… material weight of it is fascinating. This little engraving unfolds a very rich history if you look closely at each individual mark on the paper. Curator: In that sense, the piece becomes much more than just an illustration. Editor: Indeed; we've looked a bit into the visible and invisible hands involved in its making and it definitely shifted my understanding of the narrative being portrayed. Curator: And for me, the drama now seems far more nuanced – it adds such fascinating layer.