Albert Anker’s reading girls as a manifesto for equal opportunities
Published: Wednesday, Mar 20th 2024, 11:54
Updated At: Wednesday, Mar 20th 2024, 12:11
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Reading, writing, playing: the Swiss painter Albert Anker often depicted children engaged in these activities in his works. A small manifesto of equal opportunities, which the Bern Art Museum is showing in a small but fine Anker exhibition.
Albert Anker (1831-1910) is still one of the best-known Swiss artists today and is loved for his detailed, often idealized depictions of rural communities.
From the perspective of the backward-looking home painter, Anker is eagerly collected by people who adhere to such ideas, said exhibition curator Kathleen Bühler. One such person is known to be former SVP Federal Councillor Christoph Blocher.
However, the Kunstmuseum Bern is interested in shedding light on a completely different aspect of Anker's work. His commitment to the education of children, especially girls. In addition to painting, Albert Anker was also active in public office in the municipality and canton and was committed to the education of all children throughout his life. Anker can therefore also be seen as a promoter of the emancipation of women in Switzerland.
Many Anker paintings show children reading, writing or playing. Here a book peeps out from a basket on a girl's arm, there a school bag hangs from the back of a child in the portrait, and there children sit at a simple farm table with a slate board and write.
Reading girls then as now are a sign that a society is investing in the education of women, Bühler explained. Reading inspires the imagination, opens up knowledge and helps to develop one's own thinking.
The alert, direct gaze of the portrayed children towards the viewer is often striking. A sign of self-confidence. During Anker's lifetime, the education of girls and women was by no means a matter of course. And even today, it is still not everywhere in the world.
Harsh reality, dignified portrayal
However, Anker not only idealized, but also reflected social realities. For example, the fact that with industrialization, many families moved to the city, leaving the grandparents behind in the countryside. The parents and older children had to work in the factory and the young children were at risk of being neglected.
One of Anker's best-known pictures, the infant school on the Kirchenfeld Bridge in Bern, shows precisely this. A deaconess looking after a group of small children and taking them for a walk. Anker always attached great importance to depicting people who were not privileged in all their dignity.
Small but nice
The "Reading Girls" exhibition comprises 25 pictures from the museum's collection. A digital guide allows visitors to immerse themselves in Anker's world of images and the life and learning of children at the time. The guide also includes a walk through the exhibition with the award-winning satirist and cabaret artist Patti Basler. The exhibition runs from March 22 to July 21.
"Reading Girls" is the prelude to the opening of the Centre Albert Anker in Ins on June 7, 2004.
©Keystone/SDA
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