Portret van een onbekend kind met een kleine mand in de hand 1870 - 1877

Simon van Caspel made this portrait of an unknown child with a small basket, likely in Amsterdam during the 1870s, using the albumen print process. The image's cultural context lies in the rise of commercial photography and its impact on portraiture. Before this time, portraits were generally afforded to wealthy elites, but as photography became more accessible and affordable, the middle class increasingly took advantage of the opportunity to document their likenesses. Here, the child's crisp white dress and the formal studio setting, suggest a family eager to participate in new social practices. A simple prop, the basket, perhaps indicates a middle-class fascination with the trappings of wealth. Examining sources like period advertisements, social histories of Dutch families, and institutional records of photographic studios helps us see how the democratization of image-making altered social relations and redefined public representation. Studying this artwork provides insights into the cultural shifts of the time.