Boerin met vee keert terug naar de boerderij 1859

This black and white print depicts a farm woman on a donkey returning with her livestock to the farm. It’s a pastoral scene, seemingly simple, but let’s consider the culture that produced it. The image offers a romanticized view of rural life, likely created for an urban audience. The relationship between city and country was shifting. Rural populations moved to cities and the urban population grew. Agrarian life was often filtered through nostalgia. To interpret this work fully, we might investigate the institutions that displayed and circulated such images. What kind of art education, or lack thereof, was available to women at this time? Who was able to afford art? Questions such as these open up a view of the cultural and social context that shapes our understanding of art. Research into 19th-century exhibition records, art criticism, and the demographics of art buyers would shed further light on this image.