Side Box at the Opera 1785

Curator: This is "Side Box at the Opera" by Thomas Rowlandson. What strikes you first about it? Editor: There's a detached quality, a sense of social surveillance. The gaze feels less about the opera and more about the act of being seen. Curator: Rowlandson was quite the social commentator. You see it in the way he uses line to capture both the fashion and the... shall we say, the theater of the elite. Editor: Exactly! And that performative aspect of high society becomes a commentary on gendered expectations and class divisions. Curator: I think it's a reminder that what we see on stage is only half the story, and the real drama is always in the audience. Editor: Yes. Rowlandson encourages us to question the narratives we consume and the roles we play.