Vrouw en meisje dekken een tafel 1887 - 1924

Julie de Graag made this print, "Vrouw en meisje dekken een tafel", meaning Woman and girl setting a table, using woodcut techniques sometime before 1924. De Graag lived and worked at a time when women’s roles were very much within the domestic sphere. The image features a woman and a girl, presumably mother and daughter, engaged in the quintessential act of preparing for a meal. The stark contrast of black and white in the print underscores the straightforwardness of their labor, yet there's a quiet intimacy, too. You can sense the weight of expectation, the endless cycle of daily chores that define many women’s lives. De Graag never married and lived with her parents until their deaths. Her personal experience as a woman undoubtedly informed her choice to depict such scenes. The work delicately treads the line between documenting everyday life and subtly critiquing the societal expectations placed upon women. In its simplicity, the artwork asks us to consider the value and visibility—or invisibility—of women's work.