I've seen enough of my cousin, mama, can't we go now? c. 19th century

Editor: This is Paul Gavarni’s print, "I've seen enough of my cousin, mama, can't we go now?". The figures seem trapped, both by the frame of the image and perhaps by social expectations. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a critique of 19th-century bourgeois life. The child’s weariness hints at the stifling nature of social obligations for women and children. Gavarni highlights how power operates within family structures. Editor: Power? How so? Curator: Consider the child’s whispered plea to escape. Is this a commentary on the lack of agency afforded to women and children in that era? Does their confinement mirror a broader societal constraint? Editor: That's a perspective I hadn't considered! I focused too much on the immediate scene. Curator: Seeing art as enmeshed in its social fabric allows us to question the norms it reflects. Editor: I’ll remember to look for those intersectional layers. Thanks!