Grandmother reading the Bible 

Albrecht Anker painted this watercolor image of a grandmother reading the Bible in Switzerland sometime in the 19th century. The image is striking for its seeming simplicity, but it reflects a complex relationship between religious belief and social structure. Consider the role of the bible: it has moved from being a text that was only accessible through the priesthood, to becoming a tool for personal reflection for people of all classes. Anker’s choice of subject matter reflects the democratizing spirit of the era, as the rise of literacy allowed more and more people to engage with religious texts directly. But we should also remember that images like this played a part in constructing an image of Swiss identity itself, associating the nation with the virtues of piety and domesticity. To understand this work better, we could look at statistics for literacy, as well as records of bible sales and church attendance. We can also use visual culture resources like periodicals and printed ephemera. All these sources help us understand the complex relationship between belief, identity, and representation in 19th-century Europe.