Dame met hoed 1847 - 1899

Jacob Maris created this small drawing of a woman with a hat in the Netherlands sometime in the late 19th century. Maris was part of the Hague School, a group of Dutch artists who reacted against the academic art world. They moved away from the grand historical and mythological paintings that were popular and focused on everyday scenes. Here, the artist's swift, confident lines depict a fashionable woman. Her face is partially obscured by the brim of her hat. This makes her seem mysterious, but also perhaps hints at the limited social roles available to women at the time. Was Maris making a point about the place of women in Dutch society? To understand this drawing more fully, we would need to research the social conventions around fashion and portraiture in the Netherlands at the time. By exploring these issues, we can understand how art reflects and challenges social norms.