3-096-721 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

À la Mairie, 1854. "La femme doit obeisance et soumission à son mari". At the Town Hall. "The wife must show obedience and submission to her husband". The mayor reads the marriage vows to the couple he is marrying. The bride is depicted as confident and unattractive, and the groom as diffident and unprepossessing - the implication is that he will be hen-pecked.