Meisje en een dienstmeid in een keuken 1885 - 1938

Gillis Bernhard Mulder made this pen drawing of a girl and a maid in a kitchen, and it's all in thin, precise strokes. The whole scene is rendered in black and white, like a memory or a dream. I imagine Mulder bent over this piece, carefully etching each line. What was he thinking as he detailed the tiled walls, the pots on the stove, the curve of the maid's dress? Look at the cat; so solid and dark. Did he pause, considering the weight of its presence, the way it anchors the scene? This drawing reminds me a little of Paula Modersohn-Becker and her domestic interiors; artists are always in conversation across time, aren’t they? Here, Mulder is not just depicting a scene, but capturing a feeling, a mood, of quiet domesticity and maybe the anticipation of a little mischief.