Portret van een man met bakkenbaarden 1860 - 1900

S. Knott’s small portrait of a man with sideburns is mounted on card with floral and entomological decoration. The fashion for such photographic cards was at its height in Europe and the United States during the second half of the 19th century. Photography became an important tool in solidifying the notion of middle-class respectability. What more research might reveal is whether such cartes de visite should be understood as marking status in a rigid hierarchy, or whether they were more commonly used to record kinship ties, or to inscribe individuals into new kinds of social networks. These small mementos played an important part in how families fashioned a visual record of themselves and their place in the world. Further examination of photographic archives can help art historians to better understand this fascinating social history.