Heer en dame in gesprek 1885

Léon Brunin made this print of a gentleman and a lady in conversation using etching. The artist was Belgian, living from 1861 to 1949. Here, Brunin evokes the distant past. The sitters wear historical costumes that reference the fashions worn in earlier centuries. Prints were once the mass media of their day, allowing artists to circulate images widely, especially with the rise of a middle-class public interested in art for their homes in the 19th century. We might ask, what does it mean to represent the past in this moment? Is it a form of escapism, or does it help to establish a sense of national identity? To understand the meaning of this print more fully, we might consult periodicals, newspapers, and catalogues that would have been available to Brunin and his audience. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.