Portret van een man met snor 1892 - 1915

Curator: The serious demeanor practically leaps out, doesn’t it? It feels so buttoned-up, that era. Editor: It’s a strikingly formal image, this vintage photograph. What we see here is titled "Portret van een man met snor" – "Portrait of a man with moustache", as the name suggests – created some time between 1892 and 1915, currently held in the Rijksmuseum collection. The sitter is Franz Eiffert. There’s something so arresting in its composition, its very stillness speaks volumes. Curator: Absolutely, the stillness... like pressing pause on a very serious silent film. And his eyes follow you around the room! You just want to ruffle his moustache a bit. Do you know what kind of building he managed? "Gebouw 'Kosmos,'" according to his tag here. Editor: What strikes me is the almost unsettling direct gaze of the subject. Given the timeframe, around the turn of the century, photography was starting to become increasingly accessible, but it was still loaded with connotations of authority, scientific documentation, and – not least – memorialization. So, to be photographed at all meant participating in constructing a certain image of yourself for posterity. This fellow chose gravity, for sure. Curator: It makes you wonder what he really thought about! Maybe he secretly yearned to wear a Hawaiian shirt, deep down. Or, maybe he genuinely relished the thought of running the Cosmos building with utter efficiency! But seriously, the contrast is delicious – you have this completely posed studio shot with that little hint of mischief sparkling in his eyes. That saves him from being just a stern relic, don't you think? Editor: Yes, it certainly injects a much-needed sense of complexity. Otherwise, without this ambiguity we risk projecting all sorts of outdated assumptions on his character. A photograph may appear to deliver us an unfiltered glimpse into a past life, but in reality, every photographic image, even one taken well over a century ago, involves a whole series of choices around representation and visibility. Curator: Well, he’s certainly got us talking, hasn’t he? About moustaches, the weight of history, and maybe even…a tiny bit… about ourselves? I can just imagine him chuckling at our speculation, from beyond the sepia tones. Editor: And perhaps that’s precisely the point. By engaging with works like this, we open channels for interrogating historical notions of selfhood and power. Even a seemingly straightforward portrait can hold a mirror to our own assumptions.