Albert Anker

In this small-scale portrait on wood, the artist has depicted his two-year-old daughter Marie (1872–1950) with her jumping jack. It is a startling portrait that shows Anker’s small daughter looking alert and serious, gazing frontally from the painting at the viewer. What is startling is that the child appears to be on the same eye level as adult spectators and therefore their equal. Albert Anker repeatedly painted his children while they were playing or with their toys, suggesting that the Anker family home witnessed a lot of games. The father painted picture books for his children, told stories, and made dolls. The painting also refers to the growing significance that the educational reformist Friedrich Fröbel (1782–1852) attributed to play. Inspired by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, he conceived the kindergarten in 1840 and invented geometric wooden building blocks that children still play with today. Like Fröbel, Anker was likewise convinced that play offered children an opportunity to grow into the world and consider themselves to be part of it.