Hieronymus betend in der Höhle sitzend 

Curator: I find the interplay of figures striking—the soft textures, and almost intimate group portrait. Editor: Let’s delve deeper into this drawing by Gerrit Dou, "Hieronymus betend in der Höhle sitzend," housed right here at the Städel Museum. Though titled after St. Jerome, the scene doesn’t appear particularly devotional; rather, it captures a gathering, almost a mundane snapshot, even. Curator: Precisely. It’s in that seeming contradiction that its interest lies, isn’t it? Considering the positioning of figures, specifically women in this domestic sphere in seventeenth-century Dutch society. We see different generations and likely social positions. The woman centrally positioned with others looking upon her—what’s that narrative suggesting? Editor: From a material perspective, the drawing is made with graphite, some chalk by the looks of it— modest tools used to depict ordinary life. The texture comes alive—you almost feel the linen in those costumes and head wraps! What does it communicate about artistic labour? What accessible resources and techniques can achieve? Curator: The question becomes: Whose domestic life is valued, represented, made art? Consider this against the backdrop of the Dutch Golden Age, and the rise of a wealthy merchant class; even the illusion of interiority for all has a socioeconomic dimension. Who has the capacity to own their personal spaces? Editor: Absolutely. And consider the labour represented both within and outside the drawing—those rendered inside and also the artistic practice needed to make something such as this with a detailed likeness—its own labour that perhaps went under recognized within Dou’s moment. It can even push us to think: whose labour supports the making and displaying of art in a contemporary landscape. Curator: By centering those historical dynamics in gender, class and artistry in an integrated, considered, layered context—Dou's scene turns into something of immense theoretical relevance, right? Editor: Right. It allows a closer examination of the everyday that offers many new points for conversation around process and meaning.