Tweemaal een man die schuin achter een zittende vrouw staat en naar haar toe buigt 1849 - 1917

Matthijs Maris made this pencil drawing, “Twice a man standing diagonally behind a seated woman and bending towards her”, sometime in the late 19th century. It’s a sketch, so we see Maris working out the composition. Made in the Netherlands, the drawing shows a scene of domestic intimacy. The male figure leans in towards the seated woman, perhaps a wife or lover. What’s striking is how the artist has presented this scene twice. This doubling effect might suggest a preoccupation with male-female relations at a time of great social change. The drawing offers a glimpse into the artist’s working process, but it also reminds us that artists operated within a system of studios, academies, and galleries. We can use sources such as letters, exhibition reviews, and sales records to understand the institutions that gave shape to Maris’s career. By reconstructing the past in this way, we can give a richer account of what the work meant in its own time.