Studie van het hoofd van een boerin gezeten op een stoel 1879

Piet Verhaert made this etching, Studie van het hoofd van een boerin gezeten op een stoel, the study of the head of a peasant woman seated on a chair, in Belgium at the turn of the twentieth century. Verhaert was part of a generation of artists who turned away from academic painting in order to represent the lives of working people. But to what extent does this image represent the woman herself? Consider the title: it's a study, not a portrait. The woman is presented as an anonymous figure, and the fact that she's seated suggests a certain degree of passivity. The artwork offers no obvious critique of social conditions, but it documents the artist's interest in representing a subject from outside the traditional realms of fine art. Further research into the social history of the Belgian countryside at the time may tell us more about the relationship between artists and the rural population.