Fotoreproductie van een geschilderd portret van graaf Andrzej Jerzy Mniszech in zeventiende-eeuws kostuum c. 1890 - 1905

The Berthaud Frères studio in Paris produced this photograph of a painted portrait of Count Andrzej Jerzy Mniszech, dressed in seventeenth-century garb. Photography, from its inception, has been intertwined with class and social identity. This photo reproduces a painting of a Polish count, referencing a distant past of nobility and power. The count's attire, with its elaborate ruff and fur-lined robe, speaks to wealth and status, further emphasized by the sword. The photographic reproduction itself plays a role, democratizing access to an image that would have otherwise been confined to the circles of the elite. Consider the setting in which this photograph was made. What was the role of photography in constructing and disseminating images of the powerful? What was the role of portraiture in the construction of social identity? Such questions require us to investigate the archives of photography and portraiture, to understand how these images functioned within the social and institutional contexts of their time. Art always speaks within, and to, its own social and institutional moment.