Portret van een onbekende vrouw 1882 - 1900

Louis Désiré Dupont, working in Brussels, produced this portrait of an unknown woman using the carte-de-visite format common in the mid-19th century. The rise of photography was completely entwined with social change. Middle-class families wanted to record and circulate their images, a practice once reserved for the aristocracy who commissioned painted portraits. Photography studios popped up all over Europe to meet this demand. Dupont’s studio in Brussels was one such place. Consider the institutional history of portraiture. How did photography democratize it? What new social norms did it create? Looking at studio records and photographic journals can help us better understand the changes in representation that occurred in this period. We can then consider the political implications of these shifts. The meaning of this image is not just in the face, but also in the changing structures of Belgian society.