Role Reversals in Artwork

During my time at the St. Louis Art Museum, I found something completely fascinating: this picture below! I do not pretend to be a great connoisseur of art work or know the best way to interpret art, but I think that the body language and representations are so interesting in this piece of artwork.  As we discussed in class, many women in artwork are portrayed as weak and feeble.  It is because of that fact that this piece is so interesting to me.  Anyone who looks at it would almost have to do a double take because it seems as if the roles are reversed.  The woman is tall and has a confident stature while the man is short and seems to be weak.  He is leaning on her (it appears) for support.  I tried to look up information about this painting online, but I could not find anything about the background of it.  I would really love to know its backstory.