Portret van een vrouw after 1880

This photographic portrait was made by the Cordes brothers, sometime in the late 19th century, here in the Netherlands. Photography was becoming increasingly popular at this time, especially carte-de-visite portraits like this one. The sitter's social class can be inferred from her neat, middle-class attire, hairstyle, and the overall formality of the portrait. The Cordes Brothers were commercial photographers catering to the middle classes. Studios like theirs played a crucial role in shaping how people wished to be seen and remembered. In a society undergoing rapid change, photography offered a way to preserve and project a particular image of oneself. To fully understand this photograph, we might want to research the Cordes Brothers, their studio, and the wider social context of photography in the Netherlands during this period. By exploring these avenues, we can gain a richer appreciation of the image and its place in history.