Portret van een onbekende vrouw met boek 1880s

This photograph of an unknown woman with a book was taken by Antonius Johannes Delboy sometime in the late 19th century, likely in the Netherlands where he lived and worked. While the sitter’s identity is lost to us, this carte-de-visite format photograph tells us something about the changing status of women and the rise of commercial photography at that time. The book she holds signifies education and literacy, qualities that were increasingly valued in women of the middle class. It suggests that a woman's intellectual pursuits could be viewed as achievements worthy of display. In order to understand it better, further research into Delboy’s studio and clientele would be useful, alongside studies of gender and education in the Netherlands during the late 19th century. This would give us greater insight into the social and institutional context that shaped this image.