Fru Have 1849 - 1852

This is Wilhelm Marstrand's pencil drawing, "Fru Have." Marstrand coaxes a remarkable likeness of his sitter. He has worked with careful, light strokes to describe not only her features, but the various fabrics that adorn her head and shoulders. The cap, in particular, with its delicately rendered lace trim, speaks to the immense amount of labor that went into fashionable garments of the era. Notice the details; the subtle shifts in tone, the delicate rendering of texture. This drawing is more than just a portrait, it's a window into the economics of appearance. The details of the sitter's dress code hint at the wider social issues of labor, class, and consumption. The cap is a signifier of status, but it also represents a network of skilled work from the spinning of the thread, to the weaving of the cloth, to the making of the lace. By attending to these elements, we can appreciate the drawing not just as a work of art, but as a material document of its time.