Naakt met boek of stenen plaat in de hand 1924

Curator: There’s a quiet solemnity to this etching. What do you sense in it? Editor: Immediately, a kind of muted tension, the image is soft but firm and present at the same time. Perhaps it is the combination of geometric shapes enclosing the vulnerable figure that projects this sense. The print's color lends a delicate but old effect as well. Curator: The piece, made in 1924 by Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, is titled "Naakt met boek of stenen plaat in de hand"—"Nude with book or stone tablet in hand." It’s an etching on paper currently held here at the Rijksmuseum. Let’s dive a bit deeper into the visual vocabulary. The figure itself, seemingly suspended, recalls classical depictions of the female form while simultaneously appearing contained and restricted. How might this framing alter our understanding? Editor: That framing—those rigidly geometric borders surrounding the soft human figure—it’s creating a stark contrast. Is it symbolic of the constraints imposed on women, or a meditation on visibility versus objectification during that interwar period? It reflects this precise tension: the expectation to embody an ideal juxtaposed with limited social, economic, or political agency. Curator: Exactly. And notice how she's holding that book, or stone tablet. A source of knowledge, perhaps law? What narratives are coded in such gestures? It seems to signify the burdens of education or imposed morality. Is there even agency present? Her eyes are looking downward and seem detached, hinting at resignation. Editor: Yes, and it brings questions regarding the female body and access to traditionally masculine or patriarchal spheres such as intellectual and cultural institutions. It makes me think about societal expectations put upon people in those settings and during those years. Curator: I read something about the image as an echo, maybe a lament. But do you think we are imbuing it with too much? Maybe the figure is meant to simply show how people carried burdens regardless of background and expectations? I see how cultural context might overdetermine how we read that female figure as passive or oppressed. Perhaps she simply transcends those categories. Editor: It's always a balance, isn't it, when exploring such powerful imagery, to consider the multitude of interpretations across history and how they speak to contemporary issues. There’s no one way to view such complexities. Curator: Precisely, it prompts questions about tradition, and freedom, knowledge and captivity, opening multiple perspectives and highlighting contradictions still resonant today. Editor: Indeed. This small work surely does open expansive narratives on societal impositions, representation, and identity.