The Bonfire 

Sophie Gengembre Anderson made this oil painting of children building a fire sometime in the late nineteenth century. It’s an image that evokes a sense of pastoral innocence, but also provides a glimpse into the lives of working-class children in England at the time. Anderson was known for her sentimental depictions of children. She was associated with the artistic movement of Naturalism, which aimed to portray everyday subjects in a realistic manner. Yet this image doesn’t offer a gritty depiction of poverty or hardship. Instead, we see idealized versions of childhood. The lack of any clear date for this work forces us to look at the artist herself and her position in the art market. Anderson lived in a time when ideas about gender and class shaped the art world. Did her position as a woman artist influence her choice of subject matter? And what does her focus on childhood tell us about the values of Victorian society? To answer such questions we would need to delve into the archives of art journals, exhibition catalogues, and census records to better understand the artist and the context in which she worked.