Stervende jonge vrouw met een lelie 1877 - 1909

Louise Danse created this print, "Stervende jonge vrouw met een lelie" or "dying young woman with a Lily", sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. It depicts a woman lying in bed with a lily beside her, facing what might be the specter of death. The lily is a loaded symbol here. As well as representing purity, innocence, hope and beauty, it is also associated with funerals and death. Danse was Belgian, and during her lifetime, Belgium was a deeply Catholic country. The iconography here is likely influenced by its religious symbolism. Though she was a woman working at a time when female artists were not always taken seriously by institutions, Danse exhibited widely, including internationally. Her art shows us something of the social and religious norms of her time. The meaning of art is contingent on social and institutional context, so to understand it better, we can research the culture of the artist and the institutions through which she made her career.