Gezicht op de eetzaal van het huis van Delmay in Brussel, België before 1898

G. Choppinet made this print of the dining room of the Delmay house in Brussels. At first glance, it’s a bourgeois interior with a large table and decorative objects, but the bare ceiling beams might suggest the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement, which sought to restore a sense of pre-industrial simplicity to design. This was a self-consciously progressive movement, reacting against the mass production of industrial society. The image creates meaning through visual codes. The house is located in Brussels, Belgium, a country that was undergoing rapid industrialization at the time, but one that was also proud of its artistic heritage. The cultural references here suggest an attempt to reconcile these two aspects of Belgian society. Historians can use resources such as design journals, company records, and personal letters to understand the social and institutional contexts of art. The meaning of art is contingent on these contexts.