Ewa Lajer-Burcharth

Afterall ArtSchool Q&A: Ethics of Pedagogy and Painting with Ewa Lajer-Burcharth

Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, Professor of Fine Arts at Harvard University, in conversation with artist and Afterall Co-Founding Director Mark Lewis on the ethics of painting and themes of subjectivity in the pedagogical process, with reference to Jean-Siméon Chardin’s captivating 1737 painting, The Young Schoolmistress.

Ethics of Pedagogy and Painting

We are witnessing a reading lesson: the child’s task is to spell out the letters indicated by their teacher. The reading manuals of the period strongly emphasised the lesson’s oral component, enjoining teachers to make sure that their pupils ‘open their mouth rather than speaking through their teeth’ to assure proper pronunciation. But Chardin’s lesson is silent.