Portret van koningin Emma met prinses Wilhelmina als baby 1880

Curator: Looking at this photograph, one is immediately struck by the weight of the moment, the almost staged tenderness despite the clear exhaustion on the mother's face. Editor: It does have that quality, doesn't it? I'm most drawn to the materiality—this albumen print, dating to 1880. Considering the labour involved in photography back then, the crafting of the plates, the meticulous darkroom work... Curator: It is indeed an albumen print and presents a "Portret van koningin Emma met prinses Wilhelmina als baby" [Portrait of Queen Emma with Princess Wilhelmina as a baby] created by Maurits Verveer. It invites a critical look at the social dynamics within royal portraiture and its construction of maternal roles. Note how Emma is positioned – she is the guardian, almost a shield. This photograph underscores the immense pressures and expectations placed on royal women to produce heirs. Editor: Precisely! Consider also the cost of such a portrait at that time. Albumen prints relied heavily on egg whites; imagine the scale needed for mass production and the socio-economic forces involved in providing these materials. Curator: Beyond economics, let’s consider Wilhelmina. She would grow to be a powerful queen, yet here she is, an infant defined by her mother’s role. It's hard not to read later events of Wilhelmina’s reign back into this portrait and consider the complicated legacy of power, duty and family inherent within it. Editor: And we see that beginning of constructed legacy visually presented through materials and the processes themselves. What the Royal House chose to present says everything. The very deliberate composition, set by the means available and social demands placed on image, gives insight into social order as an essential aspect of the subject being represented. Curator: Absolutely. This photograph offers such an important window, albeit a constructed one, into gender and class and their inextricable entanglement within royalty in the late 19th century. Editor: Seeing Verveer’s print from this vantage enriches the image and the complex web that went into its creation. The print process speaks to class, and material value. What started off as an elegant mother-child picture yields much deeper, richer insights than one might think on the surface.