Studieblad met gezin met twee kinderen 1776 - 1815

Marie Lambertine Coclers made this print of a family with two children sometime around the turn of the 19th century. We see a woman holding a child, with another child reaching up towards them, and another figure standing behind with a walking stick. Coclers was from a family of artists in the Netherlands, at a time when the Dutch Republic was coming to an end and being replaced by French rule. As a woman artist in this period, Coclers would have had to navigate the male-dominated art world, and it is interesting to consider how this print might reflect her position in society. The image seems to emphasize the importance of family and domestic life, perhaps as a way of asserting the value of women's work in a changing world. The inclusion of an older figure may be a sign of the importance of intergenerational connections during this time. To understand this print more fully, we might want to research the social and economic conditions of women in the Netherlands, and we can see how artistic production is always shaped by its context.