Portret van Wilhelmina, koningin der Nederlanden 1934

Franz Ziegler made this portrait of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands using photography, sometime before 1939. What strikes me about this image is its soft, almost hazy quality, like a dream or a memory. It's not about sharp details but rather a gentle rendering of the Queen, her features softened by the photographic process. The light seems to diffuse evenly across her face, creating a sense of calm and serenity. Look at the way the veil drapes around her head, its delicate fabric rendered with subtle gradations of tone. There's a quiet elegance in the way it frames her face, drawing our attention to her eyes and her composed expression. It reminds me a little of the portraits by Julia Margaret Cameron, who was working a generation earlier, another artist who embraced the imperfections and idiosyncrasies of the photographic process. Both Ziegler and Cameron, in their own ways, seemed to be interested in something beyond mere representation, capturing instead a sense of character and inner life. It’s a reminder that art is never just about what we see but how we see it.