Fake History Hunter

This article was originally a thread on social media, which is why it is formatted with lots of images and short responses.
The text is about the image below that paragraph.

This is ‘Der lästige Kavalier’ (The troublesome cavalier/”gentleman”) painted by Berthold Woltze (1829–1896):

It depicts a scene most women will recognise, some men just can’t leave us alone and travel in peace.
But there’s more to this image than just an annoying dirty old man.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the details.

The young lady is in mourning, which the man knows, or should know, after all, she’s wearing black. Anyone back then who was brought up properly, a gentleman/lady, a common working class factory worker, anyone who was not of low character, would have realised what her situation was and would not have bothered her.
Annoying someone on public transport is bad, annoying someone in mourning is worse:

I think she’s holding a little book and pen, was she writing something down?
Was the book wrapped in that white fabric or is that a handkerchief she used because she was crying?
Or maybe it’s her purse?

Is she pulling a hatpin out of her hat to defend herself with if need be?
This seem to have been a done thing back then:

Here’s an article about the “hat pin peril:
‘The Hatpin Peril’ Terrorized Men Who Couldn’t Handle the 20th-Century Woman.

The girl might be cold, she’s got her cloak wrapped around her and is wearing her gloves, but she has opened her window:

Is it because the jerk is smoking his cigar?
More evidence of him not having been brought up right and not caring about anyone else?

Just look at him.
The flashy red tie. That grin, leaning over her, clearly trying to get her to chat with him.
She’s sad, she’s crying, she’s in mourning.
He’s smiling, leering at her.

She’s young, perhaps still in her teens, much younger than him, but this also means she may not have lost her husband but a parent or sibling.
She could be a young widow widow but she could also just be a child who just lost her mum, dad or both her parents.
If you’ve lost a parent, you’ll know what a traumatic experience that is, poor girl:

Just look at that face.
Really look at it.
She has been crying, she IS crying.
And she is looking at us, the viewers.
By the way she looks we can see that we are sitting across the isle opposite her, which confirms that she’s all on her own.

If you were in this train with her this would be the right moment to step in and do something about that cad.
I would.
I have acted in similar situations, not always the wise thing to do, but I have no regrets:

The painting made me a bit angry, so I took the liberty to create what I would have liked to have happened next, and before you ask, I did this manually, no annoying ai involved:

I hope the artist could have appreciated it.

If you enjoyed my review, check out this list of other reviews I wrote:
https://fakehistoryhunter.net/2022/11/14/my-reviews/