Ochtentoilet 1758 - 1808

Curator: It's amazing how much life Christina Chalon packed into such a small space, isn’t it? This is her etching, "Ochtentoilet," thought to have been created sometime between 1758 and 1808. Editor: Intimate, isn't it? The textures alone draw you right into that little Dutch home, that sense of close quarters and familial life... almost a little claustrophobic, actually. Curator: The busyness of everyday life is evident, wouldn't you agree? A mother attending to her children... Look at the care in her face as she fastens that little shoe! Editor: Absolutely, and there’s a very specific gaze being offered here. It's the familiar weight of the labor often invisible: dressing children, mending clothes. Where’s the father? Absent from the frame, but very present by his omission. The labor of care consistently, overwhelmingly, falls on women's shoulders. Curator: True. It feels honest. She gives you not just the prettiness, but also the... well, perhaps monotony of the scene. She shows that beauty isn't always the shining star. Sometimes, beauty resides in being able to simply manage another day. The pen strokes themselves create this feeling: a beautiful mess. Editor: It makes me consider, too, the implications of such domesticity within the art world. Genre painting has long been deemed secondary, less worthy. Was Chalon pushing against that, embedding critical commentary into an everyday moment? Or perhaps, were women allowed to show only the everyday? Curator: Perhaps a little of both, perhaps neither. Ultimately, it leaves me in a nostalgic daze, this one. Childhood, in all its simplicity... Editor: Nostalgia, sure. But I see also a crucial archive. Christina Chalon captures, within those delicate etched lines, the lives, labor, and historical experience of women so frequently left out of the bigger picture. It’s lovely, and politically profound.