Meisje dat op haar zij ligt te lezen 1919

Editor: Today, we're looking at "Meisje dat op haar zij ligt te lezen," or "Girl Lying on her Side Reading," an ink and pen drawing from 1919 by Reijer Stolk, at the Rijksmuseum. It's a fairly simple, almost gestural sketch, capturing a really intimate, quiet moment. I'm curious, what do you see in this piece? Curator: It whispers of stolen moments, doesn't it? Not posed, not performed. Stolk's quick, looping lines remind me of catching a fleeting thought on paper. Imagine him, perhaps, jotting this down in a cafe, a brief notation of someone's quiet existence. Do you notice how the composition has almost a double vision feel? It's like a memory replaying itself, or perhaps just a slight variation on a theme. Editor: It does give that impression! Like two slightly different angles of the same person, maybe moments apart. It makes me wonder about the story behind it. Curator: Perhaps the story is precisely that there isn’t one. It's more about a mood, a feeling of domestic tranquility or maybe even the comfortable solitude found in reading. Do you think Stolk was interested in capturing likeness, or something more ephemeral? Editor: I think it's definitely more about the feeling. The lines are so free, they feel more like emotions than accurate portrayals. What's interesting is the kind of "double vision" doesn't make it confusing, more evocative. Curator: Exactly! It nudges us towards the ephemeral nature of observation itself. We never quite see anything exactly the same way twice. It is almost like, when reading, we replay the image in our minds again, each time with new inflections. It is a beautiful rendering. Editor: It's like he's caught the essence of being lost in a book, the focus and the escape, so simply. It definitely gives me a new perspective. Curator: Yes, a sketch about seeing… but ultimately about feeling. Art reveals what we might have overlooked.