Albert Anker

In the fall of 1858, Anker traveled to the Black Forest with the German painter Ludwig Knaus to study life on farms there. Anker stayed in Biberach for several weeks, sang in the church choir, and integrated himself into the village’s community life. Unlike Knaus in his paintings, Anker had no interest in depicting contrived or sentimental scenes, but was instead attempting, with psychological empathy, to capture the reality of rural life. His elementary school is depicted in all its gloominess and stuffy confinement, the teacher at his desk with a stick under his arm spreading fear and terror. In front of him are three boys and a barefoot girl who is sobbing into her handkerchief. Another boy kneels in front of the teacher, who is apparently giving them a severe lecture. While some boy pupils watch spellbound, the girls in the background continue knitting. The room appears rather overcrowded, suggesting less than ideal circumstances for inspired learning. The image demonstrates the prevailing gender divide, in that most of the boys have a place at school desks while the girls are only marginally involved, but mainly busy knitting. In this painting, Anker was addressing the subject of elementary school for the first time. He made his debut at the Paris Salon with the work in 1859, where it was immediately purchased by a collector from Glasgow, a certain Mr. Dempster, for 1,500 francs. While, in its melancholy and poverty, it embodies an old-fashioned view of school, in his later depictions of classrooms Anker went on to address educational policies’ achievements and innovations.