Verovering van het Warandepark in Brussel, 1830 1830

Jean-Louis Van Hemelryck made this print of the ‘Conquest of the Warandepark in Brussels’ in 1830. It shows the revolutionaries fighting in Brussels Park during the Belgian Revolution of 1830. The print depicts a specific historical moment in the struggle for Belgian independence from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, a time of political and social upheaval. The park, once a formal garden associated with royal power, became a battleground for national liberation. The image transforms a space of privilege into a site of popular resistance. Van Hemelryck's print invites us to consider the public role of art and the politics of imagery during times of revolution. It serves as a reminder of how art can reflect and shape our understanding of historical events. To truly understand it, further research into the social conditions that shaped artistic production in 19th-century Belgium is needed.