Kanten kraag 1834 - 1906

Curator: Before us is "Kanten kraag," which translates to "lace collar", a pencil drawing by Maria Vos, made sometime between 1834 and 1906. It’s part of the Rijksmuseum's collection. What strikes you immediately? Editor: Honestly, a ghostly whisper of an idea, unfinished... I see the faintest suggestion of fabric taking shape, it is kind of heartbreaking. So fragile. Like holding your breath. Curator: That feeling of fragility might stem from the context. Vos, a 19th-century woman artist, would have likely used sketches like this as studies, preliminary explorations for larger, possibly never-realized, works. This suggests the limitations placed on women artists in that era. Editor: That rings true, especially because lace-making itself was so often the work of women. So is this a picture about the world the artist sees, or the world the artist occupies? Curator: That's a great question. Vos came from a wealthy family. But many lace makers would not be so well off, a common craft turned into global production by industrial means. This drawing also allows us to appreciate the artistry of lacework, rescuing it, perhaps, from that mass production. Editor: And yet there's a quiet resistance here, too. To leave the artwork as suggestion or a preliminary sketch...Maybe Vos did that as a way to protest the rigid artistic traditions that confined women's creativity and artistry. Curator: Exactly. There were limitations in the 19th century as to which subject matter was taken seriously by the Academies. A lace collar might be read by those powerbrokers as trivial! She almost could be playing with the social politics and hierarchies that valued so called serious subjects from history painting over all others. Editor: Well, you have totally given me a fresh perspective. I walked in thinking, lovely little sketch but that’s as far as it goes. I am thinking of hidden narratives of labour, of womanhood. The pencil barely touches the page. But it’s so resonant! Curator: It’s amazing what a little looking and consideration of history can unlock! Editor: Absolutely. This ghostly little drawing contains so much history, labor, and artistic identity! I love that.