Fotoreproductie van Mütterliche Besorgnis door Friedrich Eduard Meyerheim 1870 - 1890

This is an undated photograph of Friedrich Eduard Meyerheim’s painting, “Maternal Care.” The image depicts a young girl cradling a puppy as a large dog looks on. This artwork gives us a window into the cultural values of 19th-century Germany, particularly the emphasis on domesticity and sentimentality. The scene is set in a humble interior, perhaps a barn, highlighting the virtue of simple, rural life. Meyerheim was known for his genre paintings depicting everyday life, often with an idealized and moralizing tone. This photograph, like the original painting, speaks to the era’s fascination with childhood innocence and the natural world, reflecting a conservative social structure where family and traditional values were paramount. To fully appreciate this artwork, we can examine the prints and photographic collections, and the popular illustrated press of the time, gaining a deeper understanding of the social and cultural context in which it was created and consumed.