Portret van een jongen, zittend in een rotanstoel 1872 - 1900

Curator: Oh my, he looks like he's plotting world domination from that tiny wicker throne. A very serious face. Editor: Indeed. What we're looking at here is a photograph by Albert Daniel Prummel entitled "Portret van een jongen, zittend in een rotanstoel", or "Portrait of a boy sitting in a wicker chair," created sometime between 1872 and 1900. It’s an intimate and telling genre scene. Curator: Genre scene is right! It has that real old timey stiffness to it, like the photographer told him not to blink for ten minutes. Is that nautical themed outfit supposed to make him seem...regal? Or just miserably uncomfortable? Editor: Nautical themes were quite fashionable at the time for children’s attire. Photography then served multiple purposes. Portraits were used to demonstrate societal expectations. To record the visual likeness of those with access, and circulate visual propaganda about families. Curator: All this talk about portraits and social context! He just looks like a grumpy little man waiting for someone to bring him a juice box. He’s amazing. There's a captivating authenticity there, though, a real window into childhood, however staged. You feel it. Editor: Staged indeed, though these photographs tell us so much about how the burgeoning middle classes perceived their social role. How the family occupied this symbolic position as core of moral social order. Curator: Still...he's stealing my heart, one judgmental stare at a time. What kind of life did this little dude have? That chair is fantastic; and how can those tiny shoes carry such gravity? Editor: It’s fascinating to think of the myriad of untold stories linked to the photograph; perhaps this photograph holds a treasured space in a family's story...a testament of survival and continuation over the tides of time. Curator: Well, however grumpy and imposing the poor dear felt back then, looking at this image does the soul some good.