Dirndl mit Spitzenhaube 1880 - 1890

Franz von Defregger painted this oil on canvas depicting a woman in traditional dress; we don’t know exactly when. Defregger was Austrian, painting at a time when the Austro-Hungarian empire was trying to deal with a rising tide of nationalism, where different ethnic groups wanted to assert their own identities and break away from Vienna. It’s hard to see this painting outside of that context. The woman is wearing a ‘dirndl’, the traditional dress of Alpine peasants. Red, a colour associated with socialism, is prominently featured in the scarf, an interesting juxtaposition against the traditional dress. We know Defregger went on to produce paintings that supported the Nazi regime and their racist ideologies. It is important to remember that even paintings like this one must be interpreted within a social and political context. Historians consult many resources to understand paintings better: letters, diaries, newspaper articles, and institutional records.