Gezicht op de galerij van het Franse deel van de Wereldtentoonstelling van 1885 in Antwerpen before 1885

This engraving depicts the French gallery at the 1885 World’s Fair in Antwerp. Though the artist is unknown, the print would have been made using a metal plate, carefully incised and then inked to create this image. This process, while mechanical, still required a high degree of skill. Notice how the objects on display, mostly furniture, are carefully rendered. These would have been luxury goods, reflecting the economic aspirations of the age. The World’s Fair itself was a product of industrial capitalism, designed to showcase national achievements in manufacturing and design. The very act of displaying these goods in this setting elevates them, blurring the line between craft and art. This image, made with the precision of industrial techniques, invites us to consider the labor and materials that went into both the objects and the Fair itself. It's a reminder that even seemingly straightforward images carry layers of social and economic meaning.