Portret van een man met een boek bij een stoel, aangeduid als I.K. 1864 - 1868

Thomas Duningham captured this portrait of a man with a book by a chair sometime in the 19th century. The man, identified only as I.K., stands stiffly, a symbol of the formal expectations of the time. During this era, portraiture became more accessible, extending beyond the aristocracy. I.K.'s attire and the presence of a book suggest a man of some means and intellectual standing. The photograph is a study in the performance of masculinity, where posture and props like books and ornate furniture were carefully curated to convey respectability and status. There’s an emotional tension here, a stillness that speaks to the constraints and expectations of 19th-century bourgeois identity. Duningham, through his lens, offers us not just an image of a man, but a glimpse into the societal pressures that shaped him.