Adriana Johanna van Heusden, Wife of Johan Arnold Zoutman 1770

This is a portrait of Adriana Johanna van Heusden, painted by August Christian Hauck. While the medium is oil paint on canvas, a fairly standard approach, the image prompts us to think about the labor involved in its subject’s attire. The ruffles of lace at Adriana’s sleeves, the velvet of her dress, the pearls at her neck, all signal considerable expenditure of time and skill. These things don't just appear, they require specialized techniques. Consider the origins of these materials. The pearls may have been harvested by enslaved people, the cotton woven by exploited laborers, the silk imported from Asia. Even the dyes used to color the fabrics may have been produced through complex industrial processes with far reaching social implications. The painting itself is a kind of labor, of course. Hauck has skillfully rendered the textures and surfaces of Adriana's clothing, capturing their materiality with precision. In doing so, he also provides a glimpse into the economic and social forces that shaped her world.