Fotoalbum met 36 opnames van Europese landen c. 1860 - 1890

Editor: This is a photo album dating from around 1860 to 1890, filled with 36 photos of different places in Europe, currently residing here at the Rijksmuseum. The decorative cover really strikes me— it's so ornate, almost Victorian. What do you see in it? Curator: Oh, absolutely! It's screaming Victorian sensibility, isn’t it? Think of those lushly decorated parlors overflowing with travel souvenirs. I imagine it held images collected during a grand tour, a kind of Instagram of its time. The album cover is a world within itself. It evokes for me the act of preserving moments, stories locked within that purple cover. The rigid geometric borders trying to tame the blossoming floral diamond – a real push and pull of control and chaos. It also reflects that era’s fascination with classifying, documenting, and exoticizing new places. It's an organized form for preserving the ephemeral. Don't you think there’s almost a melancholic echo, a reminder of lives, stories, places…fading away? Editor: Absolutely! I was focused on the surface, but thinking about it as a way to capture memories, making it more like a time capsule definitely brings out a hint of melancholy. Now I am more aware of the significance of owning a tangible item to remember your past experiences. Curator: Precisely! The object becomes charged, almost like a portal. And that contrast – those geometric shapes and free-flowing leaves – is everything, a dance between order and organic life. What a precious window into how past generations curated their worlds!