Portret van Jacobus Bellamy 1807

This is Ludwig Gottlieb Portman's engraving of Jacobus Bellamy, made in the Netherlands at the turn of the 19th century. Bellamy was a well-known poet, and Portman, like other artists of the period, was working in a market newly opened to the public. The print is small and was probably intended to be collected, perhaps bound into a book or kept in a portfolio. Its circulation depended on the infrastructures of printmaking, publishing, and distribution that were expanding at this time. The restrained style reflects the conservative tastes of the Dutch middle class. The oval frame and formal pose are typical of portraits of the period and signal Bellamy's status as a respected figure in Dutch society. To understand the historical context of this print, we might research the market for portrait prints in the Netherlands at this time. We could also investigate the publishing industry and the growth of a reading public. Such research helps us to understand how art is embedded in social and institutional practices.