Woman on balcony, waving 

Editor: Here we have "Woman on balcony, waving," a pencil drawing on paper by Otto Scholderer. It's a quick sketch, a fleeting moment captured. What immediately strikes me is the ambiguity; is she waving hello or goodbye? What can you tell me about this work? Curator: Well, let's consider the historical context. This drawing aligns with Romanticism, which emerged partly as a reaction against industrialization and the Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason. So, what would waving mean within that frame? Editor: Perhaps a longing for something lost? Or a reaching out from the domestic sphere into a changing world? Curator: Precisely. Scholderer gives us a woman on the threshold, quite literally between interior and exterior spaces. Note how the balcony itself is rendered, part barrier, part bridge. Who does this work invite to step onto it, or does it block someone to step off of it? The sketchiness of the pencil lines also plays a role. Does it appear finished or is this a depiction of a specific instant. How can this be related to society’s conventions surrounding gender and public display during the period this piece was composed? Editor: It’s like we're catching her in a private moment, before it's fully formed. So, the medium and style support this sense of transition, of liminality. The drawing, then, feels deliberately unfinished as a deliberate choice in the Romanticism ethos of emotionality. Curator: Exactly. Think about who typically wielded power in shaping narratives back then – institutions, academies, often men. Here, the rough sketch almost subverts that control. What would happen to that emotional moment and womanly representation were it completely refined and presented in public at this time? Editor: Interesting! I never considered the “unfinished” quality as a subtle act of resistance against established norms, so to speak. Curator: And how power structures dictate what stories get told and in what ways. Food for thought, indeed. Editor: Definitely gives a new dimension to this fleeting scene!