Home Publications General collection From drawing manual to academy. La capitale offrait un vaste choix de formations. In de 19 de eeuw kregen meisjes uit de burgerij, de adel en het koningshuis in Europa een artistieke opvoeding. Enkelen maakten van de kunsten hun beroep, wat door het groeiende opleidingsaanbod mogelijk was geworden. De weinig onderzochte meerderheid beoefende de kunsten als amateur. Dit artikel concentreert zich op de artistieke opvoeding van amateurkunstenaressen en specifiek op die van adellijke vrouwen in het 19 de -eeuwse Brussel.
De adel hechtte veel belang aan een kunstzinnige educatie, maar bracht zelden beroepskunstenaars voort. De hoofdstad bood ruime opleidingsmogelijkheden. In the 19 th century, girls from the middle class, the nobility and the royal families in Europe received an artistic education. A few decided to become professional artists, which was made possible, among other things, by the growing range of education on offer.
The understudied majority practiced the arts as amateurs. This article focuses on the artistic education of amateur artists and specifically on that of noble women in 19 th -century Brussels.
For the nobility, artistic education was very important, however it rarely produced professional artists. The capital offered ample education opportunities. The results from sources in private archives deepen the knowledge about amateur female artists and the artistic landscape, while contextualizing the findings about professional female artists.
This also happened in Belgium. In recent decades, the education, professional practice and oeuvre of Belgian women artists have been extensively studied [Van Cauwenberge and de Jong, ; Sterckx, ; Creusen, ; Laureux, ]. Their peers who practiced the visual and applied arts as amateurs are briefly discussed in these studies in order to frame the career path of the professional women artists. Although they formed the vast majority, their artistic upbringing, artistic activities and self-made objects remain poorly researched [Wiertz, ].
