Lezende vrouw

Pieter Willem van Megen made this print of a woman reading sometime before his death in 1785. The image creates meaning through a set of visual codes that would have been easily recognized in the Netherlands at the time. The woman’s dress and comportment suggest that she is a member of the bourgeoisie, or middle class. Literacy was becoming an increasingly important status marker, and reading was seen as a genteel accomplishment, especially for women. It is possible that the artist intended to encourage the rising literacy of women, but we might equally view this print as a tool for teaching young women to embody values of their time. Prints like this one circulated widely, and we might find out a great deal more about how they functioned as agents of social change by looking at the archives of the Dutch print trade.