Eduard Woyna 1840

Curator: Here we have Josef Kriehuber's "Eduard Woyna" created in 1840, rendered in watercolor. Editor: It has that traditional feel of academic art. What’s interesting to me is the way the subject, his clothes, kind of blend into the background… It almost feels like we’re only seeing him from the chest up. What can you tell me about the material choices and what they might say about society back then? Curator: Notice how watercolor allows for a certain level of detail, especially when portraying fabrics. The quality of Woyna’s jacket, his bow, and even the detail on the medal attached to his jacket points to wealth. Think of what materials and processes it took to render the watercolor onto paper, and how those labor processes were regarded compared to something in oil, which was thought of as much higher art. How do you think the means of production, here the watercolors and the portrait, speak to larger class issues and consumption during this period? Editor: I hadn’t thought about watercolor being used that way, it makes me wonder about who had access to having their portrait done, even in watercolor versus oil. So even the 'lower' medium of watercolor, when rendered with such detail, can show a person's higher class and the privilege they possess from that. Curator: Precisely. We can examine these pieces not just as beautiful art, but also as material evidence of societal structure. We get an impression of the means and relations of production and what sort of material conditions made a piece such as this portrait possible. Editor: This really gives me a new perspective on the social impact that a medium like watercolor could represent, instead of thinking it’s just an aesthetic choice. Curator: Exactly, it's all about examining the bigger picture!