Gezicht op een zaal in renaissancestijl in het hotel van Léon Gérard in Brussel, België before 1898

Editor: This is a print titled "Gezicht op een zaal in renaissancestijl in het hotel van Léon Gérard in Brussel, België" by G. Choppinet, created before 1898. The monochromatic image captures a Renaissance-style room. What really strikes me is the almost photographic level of detail and how that seems to contrast the subject. What does this work make you consider? Curator: It's interesting that you pick up on the photograph-like quality, because that makes me immediately consider the social function of representing wealth and power at the turn of the century. How might the architecture and interior design of Léon Gérard's hotel in Brussels reinforce class structures of the time? Editor: I hadn’t thought about that. So, you’re saying that the photo aesthetic gives this an air of being like documentation rather than something artistic, something objective, to reinforce existing power structures? Curator: Precisely. Photography then, as now, was perceived to hold an objective view. Think about the careful arrangement of the furniture, the display of wealth through books and ornamentation. Who do you imagine this image was meant to impress? How would this interior present a specific vision of Belgian identity and class? Editor: I guess it presents a very exclusive identity of educated elites. Were these types of hotels really for everyone to visit? It does feel a bit like something behind closed doors. Curator: Exactly! And we can view the circulation of prints such as these as not just neutral depictions, but as tools for both defining and upholding societal norms of luxury and taste. Editor: This has changed my view considerably, now when I look at it I see a record of power instead of something to admire blindly. Curator: Excellent! Seeing art in its social context is exactly what brings it to life and gives us, in the present, the ability to understand its role.