Portret van een jongeman 1880 - 1910

Alexander Matthaey, a photographer active in present-day Estonia, made this portrait of a young man at an unknown date, using photographic paper. This image is one of many that allow us to explore the social history of the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the democratizing lens of photography. Though we don't know the sitter's name or the date it was taken, we can infer that the sitter's bow tie and suit indicate a certain degree of social status, of belonging to a particular bourgeois class. It is important to remember that portraiture at this time was increasingly accessible to a broader segment of the population compared to previous eras in which painted portraits were a signifier of wealth. To understand more about this image, we might research Alexander Matthaey’s photographic studio, along with the history of portrait photography in Estonia, to better understand the subject's cultural, social and institutional context.