Wilfried bij zijn moeder 1854

Editor: Here we have "Wilfried bij zijn moeder" - or "Wilfried with his Mother" - a pencil drawing by Charles Rochussen, from 1854. It's currently held at the Rijksmuseum. I'm struck by the tentative, almost unfinished quality. The shading is beautiful but it makes me wonder about the relationship between mother and son. How would you interpret this work? Curator: Oh, that tentativeness, precisely! Rochussen captures a moment poised between…well, everything, really. The realism style whispers of daily life, but it's not *quite* a slice of it. It’s more like a held breath. This isn’t just any mother and son, is it? He’s dressed for adventure, perhaps battle, a bit theatrically. The details of his…let’s call it *stage attire*, combined with her gesture... Are we watching a hero's goodbye, or an actor's? And what story does she have for her boy? Or he to her? Is this moment from Rochussen’s imagination or is he merely recalling an image of a well-known stage drama for the viewer to place the subjects for themselves? Editor: That's a fascinating point about the theatricality. So you see it as maybe blurring the line between real emotion and a performance of emotion? Curator: Exactly! Notice how the light sort of spotlights them, setting the stage. Rochussen makes me wonder what he saw through. He places them and asks *you* to write them. Do you feel pity? Anger? Hope? It is all valid and of this mother and child’s reality. Editor: I do find myself feeling differently than when I started. Seeing that almost stage-like quality changes everything. I was so focused on this singular moment, but your focus allows the viewer to place so much history into it. Curator: Yes. We have to open the stage. It lets you wander in it; or simply, change it to your liking.