Moeder en dochter met spoel voor een huis 1768

Pierre Adrien Le Beau created this print of a mother and daughter with a bobbin in France, though the exact date is unknown. It offers a glimpse into the ideals and social structures of its time. The print depicts a scene of domesticity and labor. A woman is seated, working with a bobbin, while another, presumably her mother, stands nearby. The setting is a humble dwelling against a backdrop of a cultivated field. The image evokes a sense of rural simplicity and familial bonds, but let's not be fooled by its charm. The presence of the "Privilege du Roi" suggests that the print was produced under the sanction of the French monarchy. In this context, the image can be seen as a promotion of traditional values and social hierarchies during a time of growing social and political upheaval. To fully understand an image like this, a historian would examine the economic role of women in 18th-century France, along with the Royal institutions that sought to control the print media.