Boerin in een schuur loopt een trap op 1852 - 1890

Willem Linnig the Younger created this etching, *Boerin in een schuur loopt een trap op*, sometime in the mid-19th century. We can see the interior of a barn, complete with animals, household implements, and a woman climbing the stairs. Linnig was Belgian, and in his time the image of the peasant was a powerful one. As industrialization and urbanization proceeded, artists across Europe looked to the countryside as a source of authentic national identity. But we must remember that such images are never neutral. They reflect the values of those who make them, and the institutions, such as the art market and the academy, that give them value. In order to fully understand this etching, we would need to investigate the artistic conventions around genre painting, as well as the economic conditions of rural life in Belgium during this period. Only then can we appreciate the complex ways that art participates in the making of social meaning.