I made this apron as a meditation on the role of the maid- a helper both looked down upon and fantasized about. I did not use a pattern, rather imagining and measuring using my body.
I saw the painting that is featured in the cyanotype at the Holburne Museum in Bath, England in June of 2023. I was immediately stuck by her coyness and sass, a painting born of fantasy. Who is watching her? And what do they want with her? And what exactly is she washing? What was her (or any 'servants') level of consent in this? Did she welcome or hate it? Or both? A true lady's maids hands would never be that pristine..Right.. a lot of thoughts. As someone who works in a professional role of service as a public librarian, I’ve felt like a maid. People in turn concoct their own fantasy about you, while others treat you like a servant.
A Lady’s Maid Soaping Linen by Henry Robert Moreland. C. 1765-82.
Though I saw this painting at the Holburne, the image I used to make the cyanotype is one in the collection of the
Tate, featured above.
The cyanotype hands were made using paper cutouts of my own, the idea being that they are trying to “grab at” the maid. Greedy hands versus helping ones. The two in the center are actually pockets. I had hoped that the apron would come out rather sexy. On the flip, within my personal life I find the maid trope incredibly sexy. Seduced by falling into the role of the helper or one playing into a fantasy. It is interesting to think of the piece as a muddling between 'professional' and 'personal' life. Consent and boundaries being paramount.
The apron is made from a simple muslin and sari ribbon around the neck.
"She enters, as though once and for all, circumspectly deposits her vital paraphernalia beside the door, then crosses the room to fling open (humbly yet authoritatively) the curtains and the garden doors: there is such a song of birds all about! Excited by that, and by the sweet breath of late afternoon, her own eagerness to serve, and faith in the perfectibility of her tasks, she turns with a glad heart and tosses back the bedcovers: "Oh! I beg your pardon, sir!" - p. 94-95, Spanking the Maid by Robert Coover
