Vrouw in stralenkrans 1780 - 1849

David-Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville created this print titled 'Vrouw in stralenkrans' sometime between 1770 and 1849. Here we see a female figure surrounded by rays of light, her hands clasped over what appears to be a pregnant belly. Prints like this one existed within a specific art market. They were cheaper to produce and buy than paintings, and so offered a means of circulating images to a wider public. In Revolutionary France, where Superville began his career, art became newly entwined with politics. Artists were encouraged to produce works that promoted republican values. We might ask, then, is there something about the figure's serene pose and the radiating light that aligns with the revolutionary ideals of enlightenment, reason and progress? To understand this artwork fully, we could research the artist’s biography, the print market in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the impact of the French Revolution on the art world.