Vrouw en zittend meisje 1887 - 1916

Willem Pothast created this drawing titled 'Vrouw en zittend meisje', or 'Woman and Sitting Girl' with ink and graphite. It's a scene that seems commonplace, but it can tell us a lot about the cultural context in which it was made. Pothast was Dutch, working at the turn of the century. The figure of the woman conforms to the fashion of the time. The crisp lines suggest a comfortable domestic interior. Yet what’s interesting here is the relationship between the figures. The standing woman holds a book, while the girl sits at her feet. The way the book is presented draws attention to the education of women. We might wonder about the access girls had to reading material at this time, and what opportunities might become available to them as adults. To understand this drawing better, we might look at the history of education in the Netherlands, or the history of childhood, using archival records, to get a sense of the social structures of the time.