Portret van Hendrik Johan Reinhold Gerard Theesing 1848 - 1865

Carel Christiaan Antony Last made this portrait of Hendrik Johan Reinhold Gerard Theesing using lithography. Theesing, a ‘Book seller’, is shown in a conventional pose, seated next to a table with a book. Last was Dutch, and lithography came to the Netherlands in the early 19th century, which was a period when the book trade was a vital node of intellectual and political life. If we look closely, we may notice how Last has emphasized the materiality of the book. Its presence speaks to a culture of reading, learning, and the exchange of ideas. This portrait seems to be about celebrating and solidifying a man’s position within this world. Portraits like this, produced for a bourgeois audience, served to reinforce the values of that class. They presented ideals of masculinity and status and this image is no different. Further research into the book trade and the sitter's biography would help to fully understand the networks within which this image circulated.