Schilder in zijn atelier 1884

Léon Brunin made this etching, titled "Painter in his Studio," at the turn of the twentieth century in Belgium. It depicts a man sitting in a cluttered studio painting a sailboat. The very act of depicting the artist at work brings questions about the status of art and the artist into play. There's a quiet intensity in the scene; art making is a process of labor, but also a privileged profession. To better understand how this image creates meaning we can examine the Belgian art world at the time it was made, looking into the institutional and economic structures that enabled artists like Brunin to make a living, and the social class from which they came. The image can be understood as a reflection on the place of art in society and the artist's self-conscious role within it. Historians of art use archival sources such as exhibition reviews, sales records, and artists' correspondence to reconstruct this social and institutional context, to better understand the meaning of art in its own time and for us today.