Stilleven met een mandoline, vissen en een boek en sierlijsten met bloemen before 1897

Editor: This print, "Stilleven met een mandoline, vissen en een boek en sierlijsten met bloemen," or "Still Life with a Mandolin, Fish and a Book and Decorative Borders," is a lithograph created sometime before 1897. I’m struck by how it feels both classical and experimental at the same time. What kind of story do you think this print tells? Curator: That tension you sense is quite insightful. This print is really engaging with the decorative art movement, and thus very aware of its public role. It’s attempting to elevate the everyday, making it beautiful and, therefore, perhaps more palatable to the burgeoning middle class. Do you see how the mundane—fish, books—are presented alongside luxurious flowers and musical instruments? Editor: Yes, I do! It’s almost like advertising. But why present it as a print, not an original painting? Curator: That’s key. Printmaking made art more accessible, affordable. These weren’t artworks for royal collections, but potentially for a wider audience. Think of it as visual propaganda for a certain lifestyle: cultured, surrounded by beauty, but within reach. This imagery becomes about aspirations and even cultural status. It creates hierarchies of taste and influence. Editor: So, it’s not just about aesthetics, but also about shaping societal values and encouraging social climbing through art. Curator: Precisely. And it's subtle. You see how decorative borders both frame the still life *and* imply a world where such embellishment is valued and purchased. Everything contributes to constructing this ideal. This is far more than simple domesticity; it's a constructed performance of bourgeois identity. Editor: Wow, I'm definitely seeing this print in a new, more critical light now. It's not just a pretty picture, it's participating in the construction of social class and aesthetic hierarchies. Curator: Exactly! Art serves, not only beauty, but society as well.