Gezicht op de oude kerk te Schaarbeek 1874 - 1909

This etching of the old church in Schaarbeek was created by Omer Coppens, who was born in Belgium in 1864. Coppens, who came from a family of artists, was working during a time when art was influenced by industrialization and urbanization. His style departs from traditional, idealized landscapes. Instead, it captures the more humble, everyday realities of life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Here, the church is not presented as a grand monument, but as a simple, functional building, intimately connected to its surroundings. Consider the choice to depict a church, a place historically associated with community, spirituality, but also exclusion. Coppens invites us to reflect on how institutions shape our understanding of place and belonging. He focuses our attention to the intimate and the personal. The etching invites us to consider our own place within the communities that shape us.