Portret van een man met een snor c. 1857 - 1870

This photographic portrait by Woodbury & Page captures a man with a meticulously groomed mustache and a dark bow tie. The mustache, far more than mere facial hair, is a symbol, isn’t it? Across cultures and eras, we see its resurgence as a signifier of masculinity, authority, and even rebellion. Think of the ancient Assyrian kings with their elaborate beards, emblems of power and status. This archetype of the virile, mustachioed man echoes through time, cropping up again in the 19th-century gentlemen, and later, twisted into something far more sinister with figures like Hitler, demonstrating how symbols can be co-opted and inverted. The face, a canvas where we project our own cultural anxieties and desires, engages us in a silent dialogue with the past, reminding us of the cyclical nature of symbols and their enduring power.