Albert Anker

The large-scale charcoal drawing was a gift from Albert Anker to the Rummel family and was long owned by Fanny Sahli-Rummel from Biel. Since 1982 it has belonged to the Lindenhofspital foundation in Bern, from where it arrived at Kunstmuseum Bern on permanent loan in 2010. The girl shown reading is Fanny Louise Rummel, aged around 12. She was the godchild of Anker’s wife, Anna Anker, who had asked her husband to paint Fanny in 1875. Fanny was the daughter of a childhood friend with whom Anna Anker usually stayed when she visited Biel. She returned the favor with the drawing and a small portrait in oil. In the drawing, Fanny is wearing a stylish, striped dress and is sitting on an elegant, softly upholstered chair. She is reading a book with her arm propped up.

At that time, middle-class parents often viewed their daughters’ reading with skepticism. As a consequence it was to be limited to short periods, while the content was not to be merely entertaining, but should serve to educate the mind. It was also an activity that should not to any extent question their later roles as housewives and mothers. Girls were able to find reading material in public libraries. Some librarians complained about a real “madness for reading and immoral tastes, especially among youthful women.” On the other hand, it was public libraries in particular that provided “sensible” reading material, including works on Swiss history, biographies, so-called Volkskalender (calendars that included entertaining or informative texts), poems, novellas, and of course novels by such popular Swiss authors as Jeremias Gotthelf and Heinrich Pestalozzi.