Like an early version of Instagram, from the 16th century onwards the still life genre has captured staged collections of objects to reveal intimate details about our social standing—from the possessions we covet to the food we eat.
As historical women artists became increasingly visible in the public realm, practitioners like the 19th-century French painter Berthe Morisot used the still life format to illustrate the nuances of daily life, particularly within the private domestic sphere. This was the realm of women and children: the objects Morisot chose to depict
