Studie van een vrouwenhoofd met krullen 1710 - 1767

Curator: Looking at this, I immediately feel drawn in. There's an incredible stillness about it, a quiet dignity. Editor: Indeed. What we're looking at is an engraving, "Studie van een vrouwenhoofd met krullen"—that's "Study of a Woman's Head with Curls"—created sometime between 1710 and 1767. It's currently held here at the Rijksmuseum, and the artist behind this delicate work is Leonard Schenk. Curator: Schenk captured her so elegantly with such precision! Look at the swirling curls! She almost looks like a statue chiseled from marble. Yet there’s also a real softness in the lines. Editor: It's fascinating to consider how prints and engravings like this circulated in the 18th century. They were relatively affordable and played a vital role in spreading visual ideas and artistic styles across Europe. Curator: It also raises the question, doesn't it, of whose ideal of beauty we are seeing? Is this an attempt to capture some timeless notion or something altogether more human? Her gaze is averted, almost secretive, as though guarding private thoughts, so who does she think is watching? Editor: Good point! Consider that portraiture then, and the production and consumption of it, was hugely influenced by class. So, this work prompts important considerations about whose faces and stories got represented. It seems so simple, but there are a lot of factors shaping this image! Curator: I suppose what I'm drawn to is this delicate dance between the ideal and the real. In these very controlled lines and very careful curls, I feel something of the human experience. I guess this image is simply timeless. Editor: Ultimately, Schenk's delicate lines have opened up a broad canvas of questions about artistic expression, societal values, and the subtle dance of observation.