Man en vrouw in achttiende-eeuws interieur 1846

David Bles made this print depicting a man and woman in an eighteenth-century interior in the Netherlands in the 19th century. It encourages us to reflect on the social meanings of art. The Dutch in the 19th century looked back at the 18th century as a period of national decline, a period which came before their own age of increasing wealth and imperial power. The man's self-satisfied grin suggests that the artist may have been playing on the stereotype of the frivolous aristocrat, whose world of powdered wigs and elaborate costumes was swept aside by the French Revolution. Prints such as this one would have been made for a growing middle-class market. They offer us insights into how the Dutch people of the 19th century thought about their own place in history. We can learn more about this by studying the popular press of the time, and the records of institutions such as the Rijksmuseum. In this way, we see how art is always rooted in the social and institutional contexts of its own time.