Burgervrouw 1840 - 1842

Paul Gavarni created this print of a bourgeois woman. Gavarni worked during a time of significant social change in France when the middle class was rising in prominence. The print captures a woman who embodies the values and aspirations of this emerging class. Her clothing is respectable but not ostentatious. She is neatly dressed, unlike images of working-class women who were often portrayed in disheveled states. The woman stands rigidly, her hands clasped tightly together, suggesting a sense of restraint. Gavarni’s portrayal invites us to consider the complex relationship between gender, class, and identity in 19th-century France. She seems to be weighted by a sense of duty as she tries to negotiate her position within a changing society. The print serves as a reminder of the constraints placed on women as they sought to assert their identities within the social hierarchies of their time.