Young woman with guitar 

Leopold Schmutzler painted this image of a young woman with a guitar, likely sometime in the early twentieth century. The painting invites us to consider the public role of art and the social conditions that shape its production. With its exoticizing depiction of the woman's clothing and guitar, the image fits into a longer history of orientalism in European painting. The woman's ‘gypsy’ costume and musical instrument mark her as being from the margins of European society. Schmutzler was painting at a time when bohemianism had become increasingly popular. Bohemianism offered the middle classes an escape from the confines of bourgeois culture. As historians, we must consider how artists, artworks, and institutions influence our understanding of culture and the world. Careful archival research helps us to better understand these paintings and their social significance.