Portret van Pierre Joseph Hubert Cuypers 1877

This is a reproduction of a portrait of Pierre Joseph Hubert Cuypers. The print was made by Smeeton-Tilly. While the date of its production is unknown, we can assume it was made during Cuypers's lifetime. Cuypers was a Dutch architect, renowned for his role in reviving Gothic Revival architecture in the Netherlands. Architects like Cuypers responded to the social changes brought about by industrialization by looking to the past. A rising middle class wanted buildings in a familiar, national style, and for the Dutch that meant gothic. Cuypers's designs served the desires of this class for a recognizable national identity, but also the Dutch Catholic Emancipation. His designs provided church buildings after a new law made religious freedom possible in the Netherlands. To understand the history of art, historians look at the social conditions in which artists were working, institutional records of academies and professional organizations, and the role art played in broader cultural and political movements.