Portret van een onbekende vrouw met baby 1890 - 1918

This is a photograph of an unknown woman with baby, captured by J. Siewers & Zoon. The sepia tones, like a faded memory, invite you to consider artmaking as a way of making memories permanent. The photo is smooth, and quite simple, but it's also a document. The way she holds the child, very firmly, tells you about the artist’s attitude towards the subject. It has a formality that is quite different from the snapshots of our lives, as we live them today. The composition is arranged to draw your eye to the faces. Think about that: The careful arrangement of the elements of an image and how that contributes to its overall emotional feeling. Think about someone like Gertrude Stein, who was also interested in portraiture, and the act of capturing a likeness, and the conversation between artist and sitter. This photograph, like a Stein portrait, invites you to construct your own narrative.