Jonge vrouw met wolf 1843

Adolphe Mouilleron created this print of a young woman with a wolf in the mid-19th century. The image, with its contrast between feminine beauty and wild nature, taps into a set of complex social and cultural ideas. Consider the moment in which this image was made. Across Europe, debates raged about the distinctions between nature and culture, the relative status of men and women, and the place of the individual within society. Mouilleron’s image seems to comment directly on these debates. The woman, positioned demurely in a classically feminine pose, tentatively reaches out to the wolf. Is this an allegory of the civilizing influence of women? Or does it perhaps invite us to reflect on the wilder, untamed aspects of human nature that society seeks to repress? To understand such images, historians pore over archival sources, popular literature, and philosophical texts, seeking to understand the visual codes that give meaning to the artwork. The meaning of any artwork is always contingent on its social and institutional context.