Little Girl Cooking n.d.

Dupenvant Dupenvant rendered *Little Girl Cooking* with watercolor and graphite on paper. The image presents a young girl, likely from a privileged background, in a domestic setting. This artwork opens up a conversation about the representation of women in domestic roles. In a time when gender roles were clearly defined, it was expected of young girls to learn how to manage a household. The girl here seems to be playing at cooking, perhaps mirroring her mother or another female figure in her life. She is not participating in the creation of a meal for sustenance, rather replicating an activity. What does it mean to see childhood and domesticity merge in this way? The act of cooking, traditionally associated with women’s labor, becomes a form of play, blurring the lines between duty and leisure. It's as if the artist is capturing not just an image, but a moment in the making of a young girl’s identity, steeped in the expectations of her time.