Old woman with basket 1860

Hugo Kauffmann sketched this old woman with a basket using pen and watercolour. Kauffmann was a German genre painter, born in 1844. Genre painting depicts scenes of everyday life, and often focuses on the lives of ordinary people. Images such as these are revealing of social class, gender, and age in 19th century Germany. We see here the representation of the elderly as poor and working-class, which reinforces a stereotype from the time. Kauffmann chooses to depict a woman, and her head covering is highly suggestive of religious affiliation. But is this painting conservative or progressive? Does it critique the social norms of the time or reinforce them? As an art historian, I can look at this image and try to find out more about the artist, the time period, and the social context in which it was made. By doing so we can understand the role of art in shaping our understanding of the world.