Portret van een zittende man 1865 - 1887

Editor: This is "Portret van een zittende man," or "Portrait of a Seated Man" by Jan George Mulder, a photograph taken sometime between 1865 and 1887. It has a kind of serious, almost austere mood, don’t you think? What captures your attention most when you look at this piece? Curator: You know, it's funny, I’m immediately drawn to the ordinariness of it all. The fellow looks rather… put upon. A stiff posture, slightly slumped even. There’s his hat casually atop a table; not a fancy table mind you, just functional. He's very much a man interrupted, or perhaps simply tolerating the picture being taken. And the realism is quite disarming. Do you get the sense that we are not supposed to stare at his photo? Editor: I do! It’s like stepping into a moment that wasn't meant for us. But doesn’t that make it feel all the more intimate? All the more intriguing? What do you think he did? The details! He has reading glasses! What books was he reading?! Curator: Absolutely! I wonder if his stern look is a projection of society on how people want to see him versus his relaxed body language. Or perhaps photography was an ordeal in those days and not as simple as just grabbing a phone like it is today? I’d like to imagine what stories this photograph can unlock to visitors. We might all recognize parts of him in ourselves and find we're not all that different from a fellow over a century ago! Editor: It’s like looking into a mirror reflecting a very different time. Curator: Precisely. I suppose it's easy to forget the everyday humanity in old portraits like this, but when you start imagining his life, the boundaries between then and now get awfully blurry, awfully fast. It offers a strange kind of connection.