Portret van Willem Bilderdijk 1824 - 1849

This is a print of Willem Bilderdijk, made by Carel Frederik Curtenius Bentinck in the early 19th century. The image presents Bilderdijk in a conventional pose, shoulders squared and facing forward. These were visual codes of authority in the 18th and 19th centuries. Bilderdijk, who lived between 1756 and 1831, was an important intellectual figure in the Netherlands and famously conservative, resisting the liberal ideas that spread across Europe following the French Revolution. Prints such as this one were often commissioned by institutions such as museums, libraries, and learned societies. Bentinck's image of Bilderdijk presents the sitter as a figure of authority and intellect whose legacy, this print suggests, ought to be preserved by the institutions that collected it. To understand this print, we might turn to studies of Dutch intellectual history. Researching the records of institutions that collected images of Bilderdijk would help us better understand his cultural significance. Considering these social and institutional contexts is essential to understanding the meaning of art.