Vrouw met twee kinderen bij een watermolen before 1905

Léonard Misonne made this photograph, 'Vrouw met twee kinderen bij een watermolen', sometime between 1890 and 1943, capturing a woman and two children near a watermill. Misonne’s work is rooted in pictorialism, an international style that gained traction at the turn of the century. Pictorialism positioned photography as a fine art and challenged the institutional hierarchy that valued painting and sculpture as superior. Misonne was based in Belgium, and the rural setting of this image evokes the cultural values of the period. During this time, life was transforming rapidly due to industrialization and urbanization. In this context, we can read Misonne's image as an idealized view of the countryside, and perhaps even a reaction against those modernizing forces. Understanding the art of photography requires that we look at the way images are framed and circulate, and how they connect to broader cultural anxieties and aspirations.