Fotoreproductie van een tekening, voorstellende Ottilie met de zoon van Charlotte in een boot c. 1875 - 1885

This drawing depicts Ottilie with Charlotte's son in a boat, rendered by an anonymous hand. Immediately, the image evokes the motif of the vessel as a carrier, a bearer of souls across water, a symbol laden with historical weight. We see echoes of this across time. Think of ancient Egyptian funerary boats, transporting the deceased pharaohs to the afterlife, or Charon ferrying souls across the river Styx in Greek mythology. Here, the boat carries not the dead, but a child, suggesting themes of innocence, vulnerability, and the uncertain journey of life. The figure of Ottilie, head in her hands, evokes the archetype of the melancholic woman found in antiquity. This same posture, a gesture of sorrow, reappears through the ages, in countless guises, each bearing the collective weight of human suffering. The image resonates with a deep, subconscious understanding of loss and the cyclical nature of life, death, and rebirth, a cycle eternally etched in our cultural memory.