Portret van een jongen met een boek op een stoel, aangeduid als zoontje van Van Gogh c. 1862 - 1885

Albert Greiner captured this carte-de-visite depicting a young boy with a book sometime in the mid-19th century. The photograph presents a formal arrangement, a structured pose of the boy with the book on a table, a chair, a pillar, and a neutral backdrop. The light falling softly from the side gives the image a shallow depth of field, which accentuates the subject and contributes to the overall effect of stillness and solemnity. The composition operates as a system of signs, where the objects and the boy's positioning convey a sense of formality and perhaps even a degree of constructed identity. The book, the chair and the desk function not merely as objects but as signifiers of education, status, and social expectation. The photograph, like language, employs a structure of symbolic elements to communicate meaning beyond the immediately visible. The sepia tone and the carte-de-visite format further embed it in a historical context, evoking a sense of nostalgia and an inquiry into the codes of representation that were current at the time.