Ingenieur Antonie Greve c. 1851 - 1857

This is Johan Hendrik Hoffmeister's lithograph of Ingenieur Antonie Greve. The formal portrait, made with lithographic ink on paper, has social and cultural implications. Hoffmeister was a well-regarded portrait artist in the Netherlands. His professional success was connected to the rise of a wealthy middle class in the Netherlands, one that wanted to participate in elite culture. The lithograph as a medium played an interesting role in this process. It was more affordable than painting, so it made portraits more accessible to a wider audience. This helped to democratize art. Yet, this particular portrait of an engineer speaks to the institutional structures of the time. Engineering was becoming a more professional field, and its practitioners sought ways to be seen as respectable. Looking at archival material and the history of engineering in the Netherlands will help us understand this image better and reflect on the social meanings of art.