Twee meisjes met een pop c. 1656

Gesina ter Borch rendered this delicate watercolor drawing of two girls with a doll. The girls, dressed in the attire of the Dutch Golden Age, each cradle a doll, emblems of childhood, innocence, and the roles they were expected to assume in adulthood. This simple act of holding a doll is a powerful echo, resonating with images of the Madonna and Child. The gentle embrace and protective gesture mirror the universal motif of maternal care. The doll, an inanimate object, becomes a vessel of affection, mirroring the viewer’s engagement with images themselves. It is not merely a plaything, but a symbol laden with cultural expectations and emotional weight. This image reminds us that symbols are never fixed but in constant flux, shaped by our collective memory, and resurfacing in unexpected forms across time.