Schets voor de bekroning van een leuning en kamperfoelie 1876 - 1924

Editor: So this pen drawing by Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof, “Schets voor de bekroning van een leuning en kamperfoelie,” dated between 1876 and 1924 and held at the Rijksmuseum, is quite peculiar. It feels like a cartoon…almost unsettling. How do you interpret this work, especially considering its potential as a sketch? Curator: It's interesting you find it unsettling. For me, this drawing, while seemingly simple, speaks volumes about the complexities of design within the Arts and Crafts Movement and how class and identity are constructed through everyday objects. It challenges the mass-produced, inviting a handcrafted rebellion that is explicitly intersectional and implicitly queer. Dijsselhof’s integration of floral motifs—the kamperfoelie, or honeysuckle— isn’t merely decorative. Editor: Oh, really? What’s significant about that? Curator: The choice is also very telling! In Victorian symbolism, honeysuckle often signifies both affection and domesticity but can also mean a sense of attachment, of being bound. Who benefits from this notion of home and safety? The design sketch of the railing acts as a material reminder of enforced social values of that time. Considering the timeframe, how does this decorative piece comment on labor and the creation of an aesthetic ideal? Editor: I never considered the social implications embedded in something so simple as a design sketch. Thinking about labor and class definitely shifts my perspective. Curator: Precisely! By critically examining what is sketched, how it’s sketched, and when it’s sketched, we reveal broader truths about the human condition and the uneven distribution of power. Hopefully, you are getting a broader view that includes feminism and queer studies? Editor: I think so, this definitely provided a much broader view of the subject and piece. Thanks!