Drie meisjes met poppen 1777 - 1779

Curator: Welcome, I'm excited to share this work, "Three Girls with Dolls," dating from 1777-1779, here at the Rijksmuseum. It's listed as anonymous, but what always draws me in is the quiet intimacy it seems to capture. Editor: It's interesting, isn't it? The drawing is made from etching and print. It almost feels like a candid snapshot rather than a formal portrait. What exactly do you see in this work that speaks to you? Curator: Precisely! That immediacy. Consider the era – late 18th century, a time of societal formality, powdered wigs, and rigid posing. But here, we have an artist who has seemed to set those expectations aside. They focus on girls, in what feels like a truly unguarded moment of play. It’s that feeling of real, ordinary life bursting through that makes it so compelling. Tell me, how does that strike you? Does it resonate or jar with your sense of the Baroque? Editor: I can definitely see that. It's true; there's a realness here. It moves me from the artifice I associate with the era, to an unedited impression, like peering through a window into another world. Still, with the limited light work, is it too presumptuous to imagine that this could have also been a personal sketchbook piece, not intended to be public-facing? Curator: An excellent point! It really begs the question: how did it eventually leave its private confines? What if this seemingly simple drawing gives voice, not just to the three girls, but also the person observing? You begin to wonder how this artwork even came into being, whether commissioned, incidental, something entirely other. It almost reminds me of street photography, you know? Editor: Hmm. Now you have me thinking! Thank you for offering your view and making me reconsider my preconceptions. It sounds like there's far more to this "snapshot" than I first thought.