Poezen in een ovaal 1834 - 1906

Curator: This delicate pencil sketch is titled "Poezen in een ovaal," or "Cats in an Oval," attributed to Maria Vos and believed to have been created sometime between 1834 and 1906. It's currently housed in the Rijksmuseum. Editor: My immediate reaction is to its intimacy. The soft shading and tightly curled forms evoke a sense of warmth and domesticity, like a private moment captured. Curator: Precisely. Consider the medium: pencil on paper. These accessible materials allowed for spontaneity. Was this drawing produced for pleasure, a preparatory study, or part of a larger sketchbook? Its status as "sketchwork" makes me question divisions between formal presentation drawings versus casual sketches. Editor: I see how that challenges hierarchies within artistic production. Beyond that, thinking of its display…how does a piece like this function within the institutional setting of a museum like the Rijksmuseum? It’s not a grand history painting designed to impress. Curator: Exactly. Instead, we have something modest, almost fleeting. And given Vos’s place in the art world of her time, it speaks volumes about who was given permission to produce images, and under what circumstances. Were her domestic subjects considered 'lesser' due to her gender? Editor: Perhaps. It prompts us to ask: Who was this work for? And what did the image of a cat represent within that particular social context? Cats often symbolized domesticity, but also independence. How much agency is subtly being expressed here? Curator: I think it’s worth considering the function of animals in 19th-century visual culture more broadly. Cats frequently appeared in genre scenes and children’s books. What work did these representations do? And whose stories did they serve? Editor: The act of sketching itself is revealing. This looks like an artist genuinely observing her surroundings, maybe working through different poses and capturing fleeting movements. In the sketch format it is quite immediate to a modern viewer today. Curator: Absolutely. Its unpretentious quality is incredibly appealing, making this a fascinating window into the artist’s process. Editor: Agreed. It’s a good reminder that what seems simple can be surprisingly complex, when seen within the right framework.