Social Class In The Baker's Cart

The time period in which The Baker’s Cart is set is one in which social class means everything. The bakers are clearly people of a much lower caste and it is represented in the clothes they wear, so this begs the question of what does this painting actually mean. Upon further inspection it became clear that the image makes you question the true importance of social class and the restrictions it has on people. When thinking about my idea I wondered if maybe looking into the past of the painting would give me more insight into the meaning behind it. Through my research I found that painting was acquired by the MET in 1927 from the Fletcher fund. When the painting was first brought to the museum no one really knew anything about it or the artist, …show more content…
When it was discovered that a man named Jean Michelin made the painting in 1656 it was debated that he must have been in assistant because, as stated by the MET bulletin, the painting was “painted in the style of the Le Nain brothers”. Even after the discovery of the signature and date Michelins identity remains a mystery because although it is mostly agreed upon that Jean Michelin (1616-1670), there were three other Michelins working in the same period and not much is known about the one most agreed upon. This lack of information caused me to rethink my approach. It didn’t seem like I could find out anything about the artist that indicated his reason for painting this scene except that it resembles the le Nain brothers, so I began a different approach to my research of the painting, an analyzing of the image as a …show more content…
When looking closely at their clothes it becomes clear that their state of poverty is as severe as originally thought. Hyatt Major express this in Children Are What We Make Them by stating that “the little beggar (on the left) wears clothes cast off by the grown ups. Even his wooden shoes are too big for him”. This idea of cast off clothes isn’t something just used to express the boys poverty, it’s something used to express the boys future, because as major’s title states Children Are What We Make Them. The cast offs represents the little boy’s future as a poverty stricken baker in France. The too big shoes are ones that he will probably grow into and then pass on to his own child as well. This idea can even be seen in French nobility with the passing off of titles, so its not surprising that poverty is something that can be passed on too. This then brings forth my topic and expresses how social class really works. If this child had been born in a family of higher social standing he would have been given the cast offs of wealth instead of