Moeder met slapend kind 1857 - 1918

Georges Bellenger produced this print, titled "Mother with Sleeping Child," using etching in France, likely toward the end of the nineteenth century. Bellenger captures a universal image of maternal tenderness, but the print also speaks to the cultural and institutional dynamics of art production at the time. Prints like this one were often made for popular consumption, distributed through magazines or sold in galleries. The rise of the print market democratized art, making it accessible to a wider audience beyond the wealthy elite who commissioned paintings and sculptures. To understand the place of this work in its time, we might explore periodicals such as "L'Artiste", as is printed at the top of the work, and the history of art galleries such as Galerie Goupil where this print was sold. This helps us see how it reflects and shapes the values of the time. Art history, at its best, looks at art as something embedded in social and institutional contexts.