Vluchtende vrouw achter hondenwagen 1796

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki created this small etching of a fleeing woman and a dog cart some time in the late 18th century. It depicts a woman pulling a cart, and a dog pulling the cart. On the cart are bags and a chicken. It is likely this image refers to the political climate of the time, when social conditions were difficult for many rural peasants in Europe. The artwork comments on the social structures of its own time in that it appears critical of social inequality. To understand it better, we might look at the history of transportation infrastructure in the 1700s. Did only the poor use dogs? Who did it benefit when serfs were displaced? These are the kinds of research questions that help us to understand art as something contingent on social and institutional contexts.