Studieblad met twee koppen en face en een vrouwenfiguur ten halven lijve en profil naar links 1866 - 1918

Wally Moes made this pencil drawing, Studieblad met twee koppen en face en een vrouwenfiguur ten halven lijve en profil naar links, sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. Moes was part of a generation of Dutch artists who turned away from academic painting towards more realistic depictions of rural life. Looking at these figures, the two young faces rendered frontally and the woman in profile, we see echoes of the period’s fascination with physiognomy— the idea that one could read character from the face. As a woman artist, Moes had to navigate a male-dominated art world, and her choice of subject matter often reflected an interest in the lives of ordinary people, particularly women and children. The woman’s posture, burdened with what appears to be a yoke, speaks to the labor and resilience often unseen. Moes’s work invites us to consider the individual stories behind these faces, reflecting both the dignity and the challenges of their time.