Portret van Paul Bril 1847 - 1909

This is Edgar Alfred Baes’s etching of Paul Bril, made in Belgium at some point before 1909. The print celebrates the memory of a celebrated artist from the past. Bril was a Flemish painter active in Rome, famous for his landscapes. Baes’s print testifies to the enduring prestige of the old masters and the institutions that preserve their memory. The image itself invites us to consider the visual codes through which status and identity are projected. Bril is dressed in the fashion of the late 16th century, his ruff collar marking him as a man of substance and taste. The sharp lines and meticulous detail of the etching technique lend the image an air of authority, evoking the graphic arts of the Renaissance. To understand this work better, we can research the revival of interest in the old masters in 19th-century Belgium, and the role of institutions like museums and academies in shaping artistic taste. The image reminds us that artistic styles and cultural values are always rooted in specific social and institutional contexts.