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This picture is an oil-on-canvas painting by Danish artist Anna Petersen (1845–1910), entitled Breton Girl Looking After Plants in the Hothouse, painted in 1884. She was one of the few Danish female artists of that period, as it was difficult for women to gain access to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts; it would have been inappropriate for them to paint male nudes, and socially acceptable subjects were limited, with still life, particularly flowers, seen as being most appropriate.
In this work, some inner thoughts are distracting the girl from the task in hand, and the overturned pot among the plants in the hothouse may represent a motif of death. The painting is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen.Painting credit: Anna Petersen