Jonge vrouw met mand op een marktplein 1825 - 1835

Jean-Baptiste Madou made this print of a young woman with a basket in a marketplace in Brussels in the 19th century. But what can we really know about this woman’s life? Although Madou gives us a realistic depiction of the clothing and setting, the print is also highly stylized. Notice the way the woman is positioned in the center of the frame, which indicates the artist wants to emphasize her role in Brussels society, perhaps even ennobling it. The marketplace in the background is a hive of human activity, and this print is very much of its time, when there was a growing interest in the lives of ordinary people. This aesthetic interest was, of course, shaped by the social conditions of the time. To learn more about the lives of ordinary people in Brussels, we might consult city records, newspaper archives, or even the records of charitable organizations. The meaning of art is always contingent on the social and institutional context in which it is made and viewed.