Portret van een onbekend kind c. 1880 - 1890

Curator: The somber mood just leaps right out at me. This image is so much more than just a genre scene. Editor: Absolutely. What you're seeing is a photograph called “Portret van een onbekend kind,” or Portrait of an Unknown Child, made around 1880-1890. We attribute this image to J.B.A. van Loo, and it captures an incredibly intriguing portrait using period photography techniques. Curator: He looks about ready to either burst into tears or seize a kingdom! The costuming feels theatrical, but that stern face... I want to know his story. Editor: Precisely! Children in photographs like these often became vessels for adult ambitions and projections, particularly regarding class and aspiration. Note the detailed rendering of the child’s dress, from the faux fur trimmings to the decorative touches like his feathered cap and holding a posy—signifiers of luxury, if fleeting ones. The sword hints at this projection, evoking ideas of aristocratic succession. Curator: So you’re saying he's playing dress-up? I guess that means this photograph could really be considered in relationship with portraiture too. Like a genre-bending rebel for the Victorian set? Editor: One could say! The picture participates in a complicated play of signs where childhood becomes symbolic, where ideas about power, heritage, and what a young person can and should represent become paramount. The fact that the child remains anonymous is so evocative, since he really stands in for so many other children from that era. Curator: Thinking about it now, that little bundle of flowers contrasts with all the other hard and heavy looking props he is holding! Perhaps they’re meant to soften the image… remind us he is a child. Editor: Right, those small details open up larger narratives around class and representation, but also about the performance of childhood itself, about who gets to be innocent and playful. Curator: It’s interesting, because these types of photos were sometimes passed around families, shared among communities of folks! You’re right, there's such complex interplay of the personal and the political in something that seems so simple at first glance. It hits me differently now. Editor: It really makes you reconsider what we expect to see, and how photography could, even then, manipulate the reality right in front of the lens.