Portret van een vrouw 1890 - 1920

This portrait of a woman was made by H.C. de Graff. I wonder if she knew how she would appear to us now, staring from this little rectangle? I'm always fascinated by old portraits, and this one's got a kind of quiet intensity. The photographer has framed her carefully in this sepia-toned world and she looks back at us, cool and contained. I imagine she was a serious woman, maybe a teacher or a writer. She has a bow at her neck, but it is not too fussy, it is more about work than romance. I keep thinking about what she wanted from life and how her world was both so different and so similar to our own. Anyway, that's what I see in her face. What do you see?