Der Liebesbrief 

Hans Makart painted "Der Liebesbrief", or "The Love Letter", during a time when Vienna was a cultural melting pot. Here, he captures a scene of intimacy between two women, one reading a letter while the other looks dreamily into the distance. Makart's work exists within a society that both celebrated and suppressed female desire. While the women are adorned in fashionable attire, they are confined to an ambiguous domestic space, perhaps indicative of the limited roles available to women in that time. We can read into their expressions and body language, looking for clues about their relationship, hinting at the complex interplay of friendship, intimacy, and societal expectations of the period. This artwork not only gives us insight into the lives of women in 19th century Vienna, but also invites us to reflect on how far we've come, and how far we still have to go, in fully recognizing and celebrating the complexities of female identity and relationships.