Portret van Felicitas Abt 1752 - 1803

Editor: Here we have Christian Gottlieb Geyser's "Portret van Felicitas Abt," made sometime between 1752 and 1803. It's an engraving on paper. I am immediately struck by her… hairstyle! What can you tell me about this piece? Curator: It’s fascinating how this portrait, despite its size, evokes a grand historical narrative. Consider the oval frame, a very common device in Baroque portraiture suggesting classical authority and permanence. How does the rendering style strike you? Editor: The fine lines of the engraving seem very precise, almost clinical. Curator: Yes, that precision is intentional. Notice the garland of roses beneath her name. Roses, universally symbols of love and beauty, also denote secrecy, the 'sub rosa.' The artist offers her likeness to the public but also suggests a private, interior life. Does the subject’s gaze reveal anything to you? Editor: She’s looking directly at us, but there is something unreadable in her expression. Curator: Exactly! That ambiguous gaze is crucial. It transforms her from a mere likeness to an emblem of 18th-century ideals, the burgeoning idea of individual interiority and also, the carefully constructed social persona of a lady in that period. These carefully-placed symbols show cultural continuity through shifting times. Editor: I hadn't considered the tension between public image and private self. The engraving medium almost feels like a printing of persona as much as portrait. Curator: Precisely. That is why reading images is like peeling back the layers of an onion to see history. Editor: Thanks. That’s a different lens through which to view portraits in general!