Oude vrouw ontluist een kind 1642 - 1669

Editor: So, here we have "Oude vrouw ontluist een kind," or "Old woman delousing a child" by Jan Baptist de Wael, made sometime between 1642 and 1669. It's an etching, a pretty small, detailed scene of everyday life. What strikes me is this sort of casual intimacy depicted amidst… well, mundane unpleasantness! What do you see in it? Curator: Mmm, “casual intimacy”… that’s such a perfect way to put it! The term delousing isn’t the most inviting word, yet the artist managed to find a tender connection. De Wael captures a very particular, almost vanishing, type of interaction in this work: one born out of necessity. He transforms it into something strangely beautiful, wouldn’t you agree? Editor: Definitely. It’s not romanticized at all; it feels very real, very…human. Like looking through a window into the past, capturing this seemingly minor interaction, making it worth remembering. Curator: Precisely! Think about the socio-economic realities, hygiene conditions…and there she is in the midst, like all old ladies from all the ages! One is compelled to feel… tenderness and also to be reminded of the inevitable realities we would often prefer to sanitize from the grand narrative! Are we truly more connected today? Or has technology and globalization brought new barriers, in their own way? Editor: I suppose… each era has its own way of making people connect and disconnect. Makes you think! This whole print felt kinda sad to me initially, but now I see it's more of an embrace of something totally ordinary. Curator: It's fascinating how art can shift our perspectives.