L’heure des gothas c. 1914 - 1919

Curator: Jean-Louis Forain's "L’heure des gothas," dating from around 1914-1919, captures a moment of intimate tenderness with just pencil on paper. Editor: There's something immediately poignant about this. It feels fragile and fleeting, underscored by the stark contrasts of the medium. Curator: The composition reinforces that sense, wouldn't you agree? Notice how Forain uses sharp, decisive lines to define the mother and child, yet the background remains almost gestural, unfinished. Semiotically, that highlights the relationship as central. Editor: It makes me think about the paper itself, the very materiality of it. Pencil drawings during wartime... they were likely cheaper, more readily available. Was this tenderness a privilege, a form of domestic labor that was threatened for many during this era? Curator: It's tempting to ascribe such context. Yet the almost Impressionistic treatment pulls against that reading. See how the light glances off the woman’s exposed breast, a subtle yet crucial point of focus which echoes artistic treatments of motherhood throughout Western art. Editor: But look at the crib, that strangely crude white space! To me, it clashes, pulling me back to a sense of incompleteness and possible scarcity—even trauma. We are not looking at a complete, idyllic scene but rather one tinged by economic reality. What about Forain's labor, sketching swiftly to capture an impression but potentially forced to leave some components unfinished for his own lack? Curator: Ultimately, regardless of material restraints, this drawing demonstrates an emotional sophistication beyond its seemingly simple rendering. It offers us not just a subject, but a deeply felt psychological space. Editor: A sketch that speaks volumes about art making itself under pressures of daily and political struggles; making "high art" in those situations must have felt challenging for Forain and, maybe that is why we see what appears to be unfinished business in it.