Portret van Hélène Da Costa before 1900

Edouard Grauwet made this photographic portrait of Hélène Da Costa, sometime around 1900, reproduced within the pages of a theater program. It’s printed on inexpensive paper, designed for ephemeral use, and made in multiples. This image shows the tight relationship between cultural production, promotion, and commerce. Advertising jostles with artistic content on the page. The image of Hélène Da Costa is a small vignette amidst a landscape of commodities, from shoes to cough drops. The use of photography in mass media democratized portraiture, making it accessible beyond elite circles. But it also transformed people into products, their likenesses circulating as part of a broader system of promotion and consumption. Looking at this page, we see how systems of representation and production are intertwined. It prompts us to consider labor and class as they appear in this work, challenging traditional distinctions between fine art and craft.