Boerin verzet zich quasi tegen avances van een minnaar 1705

Bernard Picart made this print of an amorous encounter between a farmer and a woman in 1705. The woman is titled as resisting the advances of her lover, but this is undermined by her coy smile. Picart worked in the Netherlands and France at a time when the visual arts became increasingly important in reflecting shifts in social mores, and for consolidating new ideals of class and national identity. Here, the theme of courtship and romantic love plays out in the countryside, a long-standing trope of European art and literature. The meaning is created by the way that gender and class roles are set in tension, a game of pretended resistance versus male advances, and complicated by the way the encounter takes place outside, framed by nature. To fully understand images like this, we can look to the vast body of popular literature, songs, and prints from the period, and ask how they helped to construct a collective idea of love and relationships.