Woman with Broom and Little Girl n.d.

Curator: Welcome. We are standing before Kate Greenaway's watercolor and ink drawing, “Woman with Broom and Little Girl," a delicate portrayal of domesticity. The piece, currently undated, offers a glimpse into late 19th-century artistic sensibilities. Editor: The subdued palette gives it an aged, almost melancholic quality. It looks like the woman’s trapped in a faded photograph; yet there's a subtle sense of industry here in the image, with her labour implied in her hold on the broom. Curator: Greenaway was closely associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement, a design reform that prized handcraftsmanship and simplicity. Look closely at the figures—they seem transported from the world of fairy tales. Editor: Precisely! That’s interesting to consider in terms of who she designed for; a growing middle class, enjoying newly made mass market products of domestic consumption, like the “gift book” or images made as collectables that fit in the Victorian parlor, designed as display space for cultural objects. So while the piece attempts to hearken back to handmade production, the artist understands the space and how its images will exist and function as items to be acquired and displayed. Curator: The composition carries a wealth of Victorian ideals concerning childhood innocence and the gentle nature of womanhood, both powerful forces in this time and setting. Notice how the child is situated next to what may be a basket of apples, indicating abundance or, potentially, the loss of innocence if you take a more critical lens. Editor: But let’s also look at this so-called ‘simplicity’; she's clearly creating illusions using highly refined watercolor techniques. The layering of translucent colours and fine line work that creates such delicate and beautiful images, using artisanal products such as watercolor, coloured pencil and a delicate paper that makes the entire work ethereal… Greenaway had mastered both materials and marketplace! Curator: An excellent point. Ultimately, what lingers with me is the tension between the work's outward simplicity and its deeply encoded symbolism and the impact of gender within the history of art. It reminds me how images subtly perpetuate ideals over time. Editor: Absolutely. And how seemingly ‘innocent’ works like this are actually enmeshed in circuits of labor, class, and consumption. Looking at Greenaway, we see the making of taste cultures!