Nurse with a Child’s Carriage 1882 - 1884

Georges Seurat created 'Nurse with a Child’s Carriage' using conté crayon, a medium that allowed for nuanced gradations of tone. The drawing emerges from the social fabric of 19th-century France, where the role of women, particularly working-class women, was undergoing redefinition. Here, the faceless figure of the nurse is central. Her identity is subsumed by her occupation, and she becomes a silhouette, a representation of her societal role. We might consider the implications of her anonymity: is Seurat highlighting her invisibility or perhaps universalizing her experience? The child’s carriage, an emblem of bourgeois life, sets the scene, alluding to the class dynamics at play. The nurse's labor enables the freedom and leisure of others. Seurat’s choice to depict the scene in monochrome adds to the emotional weight of the piece, evoking the emotional and economic realities of working women during this time. It encourages a meditation on visibility, labor, and social class.