Reproductie van een gravure van een portret van Paul de Vos door Adriaen Lommelin before 1877

This is Joseph Maes' reproduction of Adriaen Lommelin's engraving of Paul de Vos, made sometime between 1838 and 1908. It is a copy of a copy, separated by time and context. We have the portrait of a white male artist, made by another white male artist, reproduced by yet another white male artist. These layers of reproduction speak to the historical power dynamics within the art world, and how visibility and representation have been largely dictated by a select group. What interests me is how artists are remembered, and who gets to do the remembering. Who decides which images get reproduced and circulated, and what does that say about our values and biases? This piece isn't just a portrait; it's a statement about who we choose to immortalize and how those choices reflect the society that makes them.