Anna Petersen - Breton Girl looking after Plants in Hothouse [1884]

Anna Petersen - Breton Girl looking after Plants in Hothouse [1884], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

In Anna Petersen’s day women were not allowed to vote, nor to enrol at the Academy of Fine Arts. The artist has shown this woman engaged in thought rather than labour, thereby manifesting how women are independent, thinking beings in their own right.

The girl looking after plants in a hothouse is not, in fact, looking after anything while she is being painted. This may be because she is modelling, but also because she has an inner life of such strength and fervour that she cannot simply just toil. In the 1880s, painting women with inner lives of their own clearly demonstrates how women are arriving at a new sense of self-worth. They are not simply the property of men, nor are they unthinking creatures ruled by their urges. This woman is her own mistress, and she knows how to cultivate nature. She lives at a time ripe for replanting in order for new flowers to grow - both at a concrete level and metaphorically.

[National Gallery of Denmark]