Heilige Augustinus en het kind aan zee c. 1660 - 1661

Gesina ter Borch made this drawing of Saint Augustine and the child by the sea in the Netherlands sometime in the 17th century. Ter Borch was working at a time when Dutch artists were grappling with how to represent religious and historical subjects in a newly Protestant culture where the Catholic church no longer had as much influence. Here, the artist shows Augustine, a Catholic saint, encountering a child who is using a shell to pour seawater into a small hole. Augustine asks the child what he is doing, and the child replies that it will be easier to empty the sea than for Augustine to understand the mystery of the Trinity, a key concept in Catholic doctrine. The image is interesting because Ter Borch was a woman working in a male-dominated art world. The Rijksmuseum and other institutions are essential for researching artists such as Ter Borch, especially in understanding how they navigated and sometimes challenged the social norms of their time.