Fotoreproductie van een schilderij van een vissersvrouw door Carl Bloch before 1878

This is a photogravure by Johannes Jaeger, made in the late 19th century, reproducing a painting by Carl Bloch of a fisherwoman. The image speaks to the public role of art and the politics of imagery. Jaeger's photogravure was made in Denmark, a country with a strong artistic tradition and state-funded art institutions like the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. This institutional context shapes the artistic production and reception of Jaeger's work. Here, Jaeger references Bloch, a well-regarded artist in the late 19th century, and his painting of a fisherwoman, a subject that aligns with the cultural interest of his time in depictions of labor. In choosing this subject matter, the artist references and perhaps even critiques the institutions of art by highlighting the labor and working class typically excluded from the classical canon. To understand this artwork better, we can research the history of Danish art institutions and the social and economic conditions of Denmark in the late 19th century. This reminds us that the meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.