Portret van een jonge vrouw 1894 - 1907

This is a portrait of a young woman by Koene & Büttinghausen. Notice the flower she holds. Flowers, across cultures, have been potent symbols of fragility, beauty, and the transient nature of life. Consider Botticelli's "Primavera" where flowers herald the arrival of spring and rebirth. Yet, here, the flower is solitary, almost melancholic. The symbolic weight of a flower shifts. In Victorian times, floriography assigned meanings to different blooms, conveying secret messages of love or mourning. Psychoanalytically, we might see the flower as representing the unconscious, where repressed desires and forgotten memories bloom in symbolic form, a powerful force engaging viewers on a deep, subconscious level. See how this simple motif resurfaces, evolves, and takes on new meanings in different historical contexts.