Portret van Émile Bin before 1879

Editor: So, this is "Portret van Émile Bin", made before 1879 by Ferdinand Mulnier. It’s a collotype and part of a larger print book…it gives me this feeling of looking into a very intimate world through this heavy volume. The portrait has a formal stiffness but feels very personal. What strikes you about this work? Curator: Oh, that sense of intimacy hits home for me too, absolutely! The rigid format highlighting a deeply soulful character, Émile Bin, makes me think about those Victorian lockets with hidden portraits. Have you noticed how the soft focus in the photograph lends an air of nostalgia, almost as if we're peering into a memory? Does it suggest anything about how identity was constructed or portrayed in this era, do you think? Editor: That's a really interesting perspective. The soft focus makes the image timeless but still reveals very specific markers of that time, his clothes, his beard. I hadn’t thought of it as constructed identity. Is there anything beyond that initial presentation? Curator: Hmmm, I do love the hint of artistic rebellion nestled in his slightly unruly hair and mischievous eyes, you see it? A bit of the rogue peering through the prescribed gentility! I wonder what rebellious dreams hid behind that distinguished collotype surface? Editor: I see exactly what you mean now! He definitely has a gleam. It’s great to think there could be so much going on underneath the surface, so to speak. Thanks! Curator: It was such a pleasure. Thank you for sharing this gem! Keeps the grey cells tickling, that's what it does.