Portret van marine-officier Bernard Dubourdieu 1836

Antoine Maurin made this print of navy-officer Bernard Dubourdieu, but its date is currently unknown. Prints such as these were a popular way of circulating images of important people in nineteenth-century Europe. France, the country in which Maurin was born, had undergone profound social and political changes following the French Revolution of 1789. Images of people who had risen to prominence in politics, the military, or the arts were in high demand and there was a thriving market in printed images. They were bought by people who wanted to participate in the political and cultural life of the nation. What did it mean to display such an image in your home? Did it signal support for the political order? Was it simply a fashionable thing to do? To understand the place of this kind of image in nineteenth-century culture, we can consult a variety of sources, including newspapers, letters, diaries, and household inventories. The meaning of art is bound up with these social and institutional contexts.