Interieur met een administrateur achter zijn bureau 1873

Johannes Arnoldus Boland made this etching, *Interior with an administrator behind his desk,* in the Netherlands in the late nineteenth century. The administrator sits at his desk surrounded by people; perhaps they’re his family, perhaps they are clients. The work seems to be a commentary on the social structures of its time, referencing the tradition of Dutch interior painting, but made at a time of social unrest due to the rise of socialist ideas. What’s interesting here is how the artist combines visual codes of domestic tranquility with references to commerce and management. Features such as the window light, the books, and the details of the clothing all create meaning. This domestic scene is disrupted by commerce, which might be a critique of the institutional establishment. The beauty of art history is that the meaning of art is contingent on social and institutional context. The curator uses resources like historical documents and cultural studies to better understand the changing role of art in society.