Man knielt bij de ingang van een grot voor een vrouw 1722 - 1784

Simon Fokke created this print, "Man kneels at the entrance to a cave for a woman," sometime in the 18th century using etching techniques. The composition stages a dramatic encounter within a landscape, rendered with a stark contrast between light and shadow. The kneeling man and standing woman with a bow, are framed by the cave's entrance and dense foliage. The artist’s use of line—through hatching and cross-hatching—defines the forms and creates tonal variations. This formal approach uses a visual language that can be decoded to reveal the underlying structures of the artwork. The very structure of the image—the way Fokke organizes figures and landscape elements—invites us to question the categories of gender roles and power dynamics. Consider how the print destabilizes established notions of male submission and female agency through its careful arrangement of figures and symbolic elements, provoking a reconsideration of how these roles are perceived and represented.