Meisje voor een schildersezel tekent een stoomtrein 1886

Here, Constant Cap captures a young girl at her easel, etching a steam train onto the canvas. The train, a symbol of modernity and progress, becomes filtered through the child’s innocent and untainted vision. Consider the motif of transportation throughout history; from the chariots of antiquity to Da Vinci’s sketches of flying machines, humanity has been compelled to capture our desire to overcome earthly limitations. Even in ancient mythologies, gods are seen traversing the sky in winged chariots. This image touches on a deeper, collective fascination with movement and speed, suggesting the steam train might also symbolize the rapid changes of the industrial age, a force both powerful and transformative, sparking a range of emotions from awe to anxiety, deeply embedded in our cultural memory. The child, through her art, grapples with this new reality, echoing a timeless cycle of adaptation and expression.