Lovelorn 

Alfred Stevens painted this image of a woman in luxurious dress and melancholy mood probably in Brussels in the 1860s. It's an image that speaks to the culture of its time. The image reflects the rise of the bourgeoisie and the aesthetic of refined interiority. This was a time when art began to be marketed to a wealthy middle class, displayed in salons and reproduced as engravings. The woman's sorrow, her elegant gown, and the accoutrements around her, speak to an ideal of bourgeois life and the pressures placed on women within that culture. The viewer is invited to contemplate the woman’s social milieu. Is she trapped by the very circumstances that grant her privilege? To understand this image better, one could research the fashion and interior design of the Second Empire and trace the market for such imagery at the time. By exploring the social history, we can move beyond mere aesthetics and address the politics of imagery.