Portret van een man met snor en baard 1894 - 1905

This photograph of a man with a moustache and beard, was made by Blanckart Frères. In the nineteenth century, the rise of photography democratized portraiture. Before this, a painted portrait was only available to the wealthy, but photography allowed the middle classes to participate in image-making and representation. Studios like Blanckart Frères mass-produced images using the latest technologies, making photography into a commercial industry. Photography was considered scientific, but also artistic. Here, the subject is framed as a refined, respectable gentleman of the era. To understand this image better, we might research photographic studios in the Netherlands and their clientele. This portrait is both a record of an individual and a product of a specific cultural and economic moment.