Gezicht op een rookruimte in het huis van M. van Roye in Brussel, België before 1898

Curator: This photogravure print, likely produced before 1898, captures the interior of the home of one M. van Roye in Brussels. It's called "Gezicht op een rookruimte in het huis van M. van Roye in Brussel, België" by G. Choppinet. What impressions does it leave you with? Editor: My first reaction is a sense of quietude, almost imposing in its formality. The space feels like a stage set, waiting for a drama to unfold. The heavy wood, the severe angles...it’s quite serious. Curator: Indeed. The smoking room, or "rookruimte," was often a highly stylized, masculine space, a refuge. The intricate woodwork might reflect more than mere decoration. Are there echoes of power, status, even something darker? The rituals that would occur in such a place might indicate exclusivity or conspiracy. Editor: Absolutely. It makes me wonder about the rituals, who frequented the space. You sense a hierarchy, a separation from other areas of the home. The almost brutal rectilinearity in the paneling enforces this division. But let’s not dismiss the symbolism in the decorative friezes on the wall—do you have any insights there? Curator: Given this was a place of retreat and, implicitly, relaxation, I note that there are images which relate to Dionysus, the classical deity of wine and theatre, thus also masking deeper power dynamics. They suggest a controlled hedonism; release, but within strict confines. It seems very ordered. Editor: That juxtaposition of classical imagery with the realism of the photo itself provides an interesting tension. How the room was staged and shot is critical in understanding its societal role. For example, is the bare table accidental, or to reinforce its unused nature? Curator: Precisely. What's excluded is as critical as what’s included. By freezing this interior space through the lens and etching tools, G. Choppinet captured not merely a room, but an enduring snapshot of a very particular bourgeois aesthetic. Editor: I leave this encounter feeling more attuned to how interior spaces speak volumes about identity and belonging in the late 19th century, a sentiment both revealed and obscured within the photograph's elegant confines.