Technique: Mixed media (stained glass, collage, acrylic)

Size: ca. 53 x 41 cm inc. frame

Margriet van Gelderop lived during the ‘Golden Age’ in the Netherlands, but it wasn’t a golden age for her. As a farmer’s wife in Brabant, life was hard and unstable. Plundering soldiers regularly passed through the region and if there wasn’t enough to harvest, there wasn’t enough to eat. Hardly anything has been written about the lives of common women in Brabant. We don’t know how Margriet viewed her life. We only know she was a mother. Liesbeth and I imagine that Margriet was deeply attached to her family and community. Because outside the village your safety wasn’t guaranteed. As her community supported her, she wanted to support others. She looked at life’s problems in a practical way. She didn’t spend her time dreaming about things that were not to be, but focused at solving the problems at hand. How would an intelligent but simple woman use her talents in a time where she had so little independence?