Portret van Irene, prinses der Nederlanden 1940 - 1941

Curator: Here we have an anonymous gelatin-silver print dating from 1940 to 1941, entitled "Portret van Irene, prinses der Nederlanden" or "Portrait of Irene, Princess of the Netherlands." Editor: It’s quite an austere little picture, isn't it? Somber even. There's a stark contrast in the black and white tones that emphasizes the isolation of the child. The rough edge of the photographic paper also emphasizes a directness and unpretentious quality to it. Curator: Indeed. Considering it was taken during wartime, the photograph offers a more intimate and humanizing view of the royal family during a period of great uncertainty in the Netherlands. Its realist style really invites the viewer to consider the Princess not just as royalty but also as a young child experiencing a difficult situation. Editor: It does feel more utilitarian than your standard portrait. The visible marks in the emulsion point to its existence as a record, a document. You can almost imagine it tucked away in a family album meant to remember a moment in time rather than an ideal for propaganda. Curator: Precisely, its display within a public institution like the Rijksmuseum grants this unassuming family artifact a status it may not have originally intended to have. It shows the impact war can have on childhoods. It invites consideration of the implications of that impact on the future of the royal line, the very structure of Dutch society at the time. Editor: And considering it’s a gelatin silver print – a process relying on specific materials and labor to produce – we can trace a clear line to the industrial processes enabling photographic reproduction. I imagine that this print may have had more utility through multiplication than uniqueness. Curator: That tension between personal record and a marker of status seems like something that would only increase over time, as photography shifted even more from a difficult-to-reproduce physical product into our everyday lives. Editor: It certainly provides much to consider; what seems simple contains layers upon layers of production, context, and significance. Curator: I agree. Hopefully our visitors feel that complexity as well.