Twee kinderen, neef en nicht, in een tuin 1830 - 1850

Émilien Desmaisons created this print of two children, cousins, in a garden, sometime in the mid-19th century. It evokes the idea of pastoral innocence, a common theme in European art that often glossed over the realities of rural life. The image presents a carefully constructed view of childhood. Note the way the children are posed, reminiscent of classical portraiture, in an imaginary landscape, a world of leisure. This idealized vision would have resonated with the urban, middle-class audiences who were the consumers of art in the 19th century. It obscures the social conditions that allowed such leisure to exist, such as class division. To fully understand this image, one needs to look at the print market of the time, the rise of landscape painting, and the social history of childhood. Art history teaches us that even the most seemingly innocent images are embedded in complex social and institutional contexts.