Standing woman with her eyes covered c. 1630 - 1670

Editor: This is “Standing woman with her eyes covered” by Govert Flinck, made sometime between 1630 and 1670. It’s currently held in the Rijksmuseum, and looks to be rendered in pencil and watercolor. The first impression is the vulnerability. She's shielding her eyes, but from what? What do you see in this piece, especially beyond that initial feeling of… exposure, almost? Curator: Exposure, yes, quite literally. But also a delicate study of form and emotion. For me, this isn't just a figure study; it's a whisper of a story. A story where we, as viewers, are invited to complete the narrative. The eyes are the windows to the soul, aren’t they? So, what happens when they are covered? Do we focus more on the body's posture, the implied movement, the fall of light? Editor: It's interesting you say a 'whisper of a story.' The sketch-like quality gives it such immediacy. You feel you’ve caught her in a private moment. It does feel like a moment of complete privacy to me, because she does not have her face. How vulnerable it must feel to remove her only mean of identifying to viewers in that way. Curator: Precisely! And I find myself pondering what the artist intended to convey. Was it shame? Grief? Or simply a model caught between poses? Perhaps it is up to us, like detectives, piecing together the emotional fragments left on the page. Tell me, do you think her physical stance changes your assumptions on why her eyes are concealed? Editor: That's a great question. The contrapposto stance suggests to me she might actually be acting in a scene rather than simply caught in private reflection. Perhaps it isn't grief after all but stage direction! That's quite a thought! Curator: Aha! Stage direction! You've perhaps landed closer to the truth than I. Seeing how open-ended the drawing is gives the artist a chance to capture every facet of the same figure. So lovely to view things with fresh eyes! Editor: Agreed. The way that changing my thinking even for a few moments and has been able to shift everything this image speaks to me. It can also change with what mindset you observe this with, from privacy to theatre; really lovely!