Oude vrouw met boek 1848

Dirk Jurriaan Sluyter made this print, "Old Woman with Book," sometime in the 19th century. The image captures an elderly woman absorbed in her reading. The very ordinariness of the subject is telling. In the Netherlands, the rise of a middle class created a market for art that reflected everyday life, and the image of a solitary woman quietly reading might well have appealed to a culture that valued both piety and domesticity. But this image also prompts us to consider the place of women and literacy in 19th century Dutch society. Was reading a widespread accomplishment, or a preserve of the privileged? Was female literacy encouraged, or was it seen as a threat to social stability? These are the kinds of questions social historians bring to artworks, using census data, educational records, and publications to understand the relationship between art and society. In this way we can consider the significance of images like Sluyter's within their specific historical moment.