Gezicht op een weide before 1899

This small photograph of a meadow was made by A. Bucquet sometime in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. It is a landscape image found within the pages of a photography manual printed in Europe. The image creates meaning through its connection to the cultural practice of photography in its early days, as well as the visual codes associated with landscape art. This image likely circulated within the European photography scene, contributing to debates around technique and aesthetic value. The manual itself, as an institutional text, suggests how artistic production was shaped by broader social and economic factors. Was the manual accessible to a wide audience, or was it tailored to a more elite readership? To understand this image better, one might research the history of photography manuals and the social networks of photographers during this period. This photograph's meaning is contingent on these historical contexts.