Jealousy 1906

Editor: Here we have Charles Conder's "Jealousy," undated, at the Harvard Art Museums. It feels like a snapshot of a fraught social scene. What's your take on the story unfolding here? Curator: Oh, it's delicious, isn't it? Like a whispered secret you're not quite meant to overhear. Conder captures that Edwardian unease, that simmering tension beneath the frills and finery. Do you sense the way the figures are arranged almost theatrically? Editor: Definitely, it's staged, but for whom? What's the drama? Curator: Perhaps it's for us, the viewers, to become complicit in their world of whispered accusations and longing glances. Or perhaps, the drama plays out in their heads, the isolation each of them must feel. What do you think? Editor: I love the idea of us being voyeurs to their drama, I see new angles on it now. Curator: Exactly! Art is like that; it throws open a window into your soul.