Lintverkoopster te Brussel

About this artwork

height 341 mm x width 282 mm

Art Historical Context

Created in 1825, “Lintverkoopster te Brussel” captures a fleeting moment of everyday commerce in the Belgian capital. Guillaume Philidor Van den Burggraaff portrays a ribbon vendor—likely a working-class woman—displaying her colorful wares on a Brussels street. The modest scale of the sheet (341 × 282 mm) suits an intimate, on-the-spot study rather than a grand studio composition. Lithography, still a relatively new medium in the 1820s, allowed Van den Burggraaff to draw directly onto stone and produce rich tonal effects with comparative ease. This revolutionary technique made affordable, high-quality prints widely available, helping to spread images of local life and fashion across Europe at a time when Brussels was emerging as a vibrant cultural center just years before Belgian independence. The print thus stands as both a charming genre scene and a small testament to lithography’s democratizing power in early-nineteenth-century art.

About the Artist

Guillaume Philidor Van den Burggraaff · 1790–present

Guillaume Philidor van den Burggraaff (born 1790) was a Belgian lithographer and engraver who worked in Brussels during the early-to-mid 19th century, contributing to the documentation of Belgian street life and popular culture through his lithographic prints. Born in Brussels in 1790, van den Burggraaff held the title of lithographer to the Royal Academy, indicating official recognition and insti...