Portret van keizer Frans Jozef I van Oostenrijk before 1905

This portrait of Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria, made by an anonymous artist, is like a little jewel box, with so much detail crammed into a small rectangle. I imagine the artist carefully positioning the emperor, coaxing him to sit just so. I can see the artist working with a limited palette of grays and blacks to capture the essence of the emperor's character. What was it like to have the emperor sit for you? Must have been nerve wracking... But imagine how they talked about this for the rest of their lives. I see the subtle textures, the fine lines that define the emperor's features. Think of the Old Masters, how portraits were a way to cement power and legacy! The artist of this picture is part of that lineage, but working with the new possibilities offered by photography. It's like they’re having a conversation across time, each inspiring the other. It is like looking at a painting, in which the ambiguity of marks embraces uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.