Fotoreproductie van een schilderij van een kenner door Guiseppe Bortignoni before 1891

This is a photographic reproduction of a painting by Guiseppe Bortignoni, captured by Georges Raynaud sometime in the 19th century. It's a modest-sized print, made using a chemical process to fix an image on paper. The material, photography, was still relatively new at the time, and its emergence had a profound impact on the art world. The painting that it records shows a man examining a sculpture. The photograph implies a critical eye, like he is some kind of connoisseur. Raynaud was part of a larger movement, democratizing access to art through affordable reproductions. This had a disruptive effect on the established hierarchy of value that then existed in the artworld, and that to some extent, persists today. This little photograph, then, invites us to think about how technologies of reproduction affect our understanding of originality and value. It reminds us that art is not just about the unique object, but also the ideas and images that circulate in society.