Vrouw zittend op een trap 1868 - 1912

This print, Vrouw zittend op een trap, was created by Maria van Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a Countess of Flanders in the late nineteenth century. The Countess has depicted a woman seated halfway up a flight of stone steps, overgrown with foliage, and built into a masonry arch. The image evokes the picturesque aesthetic popular during the late 1800s in Europe, emphasizing the beauty of nature and the charm of ruins. This aesthetic was intimately connected with social class, reflecting the leisure activities of the aristocracy, their interest in landscape design, and their appropriation of the past. The Countess here positions herself as a cultivated observer of the natural world, and simultaneously reinforces class divisions by subtly celebrating the privileges of the elite. To understand this artwork more fully, we might research the picturesque movement and consider the social role of royal women in late nineteenth-century Belgium. Only by understanding the social and institutional histories can we fully understand its meaning.