Zittende, treurig kijkende man naast staande vrouw 1830 - 1880

Curator: So here we have "Seated, sadly gazing man next to standing woman" from somewhere between 1830 and 1880. This drawing resides here at the Rijksmuseum, and we know it came from the hand of Adolphe Mouilleron. It’s done in ink on paper. Editor: My first thought is how utterly Victorian it feels. That quiet melancholy is almost a tangible thing, hanging in the air between those two figures. You can almost feel the scratch of the pen across the paper, too. Curator: Absolutely, there's a raw immediacy in Mouilleron's mark-making that speaks directly to Romanticism’s fascination with feeling. It looks like he’s favored delicate strokes and hatching for creating the tonal variations to establish the drama. What do you make of the woman’s stance? Editor: Her stance looks as though she may well be offering some kind of… comfort? Or maybe she’s delivering bad news, the kind that’s landed like a stone in the man's stomach. The texture of her dress, all those tiny folds and gathers, almost seems to weigh her down, matching the heavy mood. The man is wearing some really ornate decorative materials. Is he upper class? Curator: Her costume has a certain "homemade" feel, while the man's does suggest status, or at least aspiration. The social dynamic intrigues me, and yes I suspect that the male may indeed be an aristocrat of some kind. Considering the time it was produced, I see class anxieties lurking in the composition. Think about the availability of paper at the time. This was pre-mass production. The paper is just as much a statement of wealth. It certainly lends a layer of fragility to this tableau, don't you think? Editor: I think so. It's intriguing how the choice of a relatively permanent material—ink—captures such a fleeting, painful moment. As though the artist is trying to pin it down and really trap the subjects! Curator: A snapshot of sorrow rendered with beautiful simplicity. Editor: Exactly. A fragile little poem about fleeting moments. I'll keep this image in my mind's eye, and imagine this piece exhibited with art that I'm sure must also evoke the fragility and anxieties you highlight so effectively.