Portret van Susanna van Collen, echtgenote van Jean Pellicorne, met haar dochter Anna 1796 - 1849

Albertus Brondgeest sketched this portrait of Susanna van Collen and her daughter Anna, likely in the Netherlands sometime in the early 19th century. While it’s a simple drawing, the image offers insight into the social conventions of the time, particularly regarding gender and status. Susanna’s elaborate ruff and gown indicate wealth and respectability, while Anna’s smaller-scale version suggests a carefully managed inheritance of social position. The formal pose and careful attention to detail in their clothing reflect the importance of appearances in Dutch society. We might ask what role these images played within a family's sense of itself. Were they intended to memorialize virtue, or celebrate an alliance? To explore these questions, we could look to sources like family records, fashion history, and studies of Dutch portraiture to more fully understand the social world this drawing evokes. Art, after all, is always embedded in a specific time, place, and set of social relations.