Portret van een onbekende vrouw, slapend in een stoel 1756

Curator: I find myself strangely drawn to the sense of domesticity—or perhaps disrupted domesticity—in James McArdell’s 1756 engraving, "Portret van een onbekende vrouw, slapend in een stoel," at the Rijksmuseum. There’s such an unexpected tenderness in this slumbering figure. Editor: Tenderness, yes, but there's also a sort of rough quality. The materials—the print itself, the paper, the etched lines—give it a blunt directness. This wasn't about airy finery; it’s got an immediacy, almost like a captured moment. Curator: Absolutely, it speaks to a common vulnerability. Consider the cultural image of sleep itself: a symbol of surrender, trust, perhaps even a miniature death as one passes from the day's labors into the nightly realm. That this is an "unknown woman" only amplifies this universality; she represents countless women similarly suspended. The dog nestled in her lap as her only earthly tether is potent as a familiar symbol of domesticity and a quiet sense of duty. Editor: And consider the plates and kitchenware stacked up high in the background—rendered with impressive tonal control in the engraving, of course. I wonder what labor she’s escaping from, what processes filled her day. Was this a moment stolen, a collapse after relentless work? The means of her existence feel quite close to the surface, perhaps much more than some fancy painted portrait hanging in some palace somewhere. Curator: I appreciate how that practical setting does challenge a more idealized depiction of the era. Yet the image of sleep itself as a state, evokes so many loaded and persistent meanings about protection, sanctuary and retreat. Perhaps a dreamscape is her true station, and a quiet revolution of spirit can be sensed as much as a nap. Editor: That makes sense, as an added dimension to the image. It's interesting how the material qualities of this printed image offer up both raw evidence of labor while hinting at something… more in the collective imagination. Curator: In her slumber, she has led us to ponder many themes—a gift that will linger long after this tour is over. Editor: Yes, a small material image with such large, open and unresolved insights—fascinating.