Vrijend paar achter deur 1830

Curator: Welcome. Today, we are observing "Vrijend paar achter deur", or "Courting couple behind a door," a watercolor and drawing by Henry-Bonaventure Monnier from 1830, currently held here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: My first impression is awkward. There's something constrained about the composition. It's small and dominated by muted colours; the man especially appears as if pinned between the doorway and our perspective. Curator: It’s certainly intended as a caricature, a commentary on societal conventions regarding courtship, perhaps poking fun at the bourgeoisie. Look at the inscription. It tells "It may well happen that you are talking love behind the door". The labour here feels almost…performative. Editor: The texture in the rendering of his coat, particularly, draws the eye, as if materiality serves to compensate for the restricted color palette. You mentioned the labor. Does it suggest anything further to you? Curator: The very medium - watercolor - speaks to a certain class. A relatively accessible mode of art production reflecting, in a sense, accessibility of social mobility amongst a rising middle class, contrasted with what they might deem the impropriety hinted by the situation. A sort of democratization, maybe? Editor: Perhaps. Note the almost geometrical composition: the rectangle of the door set against the figure creates tension. But his skewed and misshapen nose betrays the intention towards lighthearted fun, doesn't it? I suppose one needs both the constraints of form, and then also it's subtle deconstruction. Curator: Exactly! And observe the very physical, reproducible act of printing underlying this single artwork. It places art squarely in the burgeoning consumer society. The ease of production speaks directly to accessibility and wider social consumption. Editor: Considering the interplay between material availability and satirical intent, my eye appreciates even more now Monnier's use of colour to express a cultural observation regarding those very values. Curator: I’m left considering how the artist’s process reveals this very telling cultural tension. The drawing invites one into an understanding of historical labor itself. Editor: And for me, it underscores the value of formalism itself. Without knowing the artist’s aim for a chuckle within bounds, one would miss an emotional core as well as artistic intention.