Leontes erblickt die Statue Hermiones c. 1868 - 1871

Editor: We’re looking at "Leontes erblickt die Statue Hermiones," a pencil drawing on paper by Victor Müller, dating from around 1868 to 1871. The sketchiness gives it a real sense of drama, but the scene feels somewhat unclear to me. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The vagueness, in a way, *is* the point. Müller is depicting a scene from Shakespeare’s *The Winter's Tale* – Leontes confronting what he believes is a statue of his dead wife, Hermione. Think about the role of female representation during the Romantic era, particularly in relation to male guilt and desire. How does Müller utilize the ambiguity inherent in sketch form to express Leontes’s fractured perception of Hermione? Editor: So, it's less about accuracy and more about conveying Leontes’s psychological state? I’d not thought about that aspect, about how that impacts how the female figure is represented. Curator: Exactly. We're dealing with a patriarchal structure where women are often seen as either idealized or demonized. Hermione is resurrected *as* art, mediated by male hands, losing all agency. Consider too, how Romanticism engaged with social themes, and often reinforced stereotypical views of gender and power dynamics. Does understanding the story change how you perceive the figures in the sketch? Editor: Definitely. Knowing the context, I see how the vagueness, and especially the statue, reinforce that lack of agency. It's uncomfortable, but it makes you think about who is controlling the narrative. Curator: Precisely. Art isn’t just aesthetic; it is political and carries narratives. Engaging with these uncomfortable truths challenges us to unpack our own biases and consider art's broader social implications. Editor: It’s definitely given me a lot to think about in terms of looking at representations of women and understanding whose voice we are actually hearing. Curator: Absolutely. Context is everything; understanding history gives power to the present.