Kind dat soep eet c. 1900

Armand Guillaumin created this drawing of a child eating soup, sometime between 1841 and 1927. It’s rendered in crayon and pencil, and despite the intimacy of the subject matter, the child’s race raises some interesting social questions about the period in which it was made. France, at the time, was a colonial power. What does it mean for a French artist to depict a child of colour, and how might this image be read in light of France’s colonial policies? Is this a portrait of a child who lives in France? Or in one of its colonies? What would this suggest about their relative social status? These are all questions that a social historian of art might ask when considering this image. By researching the history of French colonialism, we can begin to understand the social and political context in which it was made and reflect on the social role of art in shaping the attitudes of its viewers.