Setting Sun, Antwerp Harbor 1868

Johan Barthold Jongkind made this etching entitled *Setting Sun, Antwerp Harbor* using black ink on paper. The print depicts a placid harbor scene, complete with sailing ships, a setting sun, and silhouetted figures in a small boat. Jongkind made this print in 1866, at a time when the port city of Antwerp was undergoing rapid industrialization and expansion. This growth reshaped not only the physical landscape of the city but also its social and economic structures. Jongkind’s choice to depict the harbor at sunset imbues the scene with a sense of nostalgia. Are these traditional sailing vessels about to be replaced by more modern steamboats? To understand this work better, we can research how 19th-century art academies promoted particular types of landscape imagery, and how those choices reflected the politics of the time. Understanding the institutional histories of art can help us to better understand the public role of art.