Ogen en neus van een man 1865 - 1913

This is 'Eyes and Nose of a Man', a pencil drawing by Bramine Hubrecht. The piece resides here at the Rijksmuseum. Hubrecht, born in 1855, lived in a time when women artists navigated a world that often sidelined their contributions. This sketch offers us a glimpse into the artist's process, a kind of intimate encounter with the male gaze as mediated by a woman's hand. We're confronted with fragments: eyes and a nose, floating on the page. It's a study, an exploration of form and perhaps, an assertion of the female gaze in a patriarchal society. What does it mean to see, and who gets to do the seeing? Hubrecht invites us to consider these questions, offering a subtle yet powerful commentary on gender and artistic expression. It's a quiet piece, yet it speaks volumes about the complexities of being a woman artist in the late 19th century.