Portret van drie jongens bij een balustrade 1850 - 1900

Carl Hempel made this portrait of three boys, in a currently unknown location, using photography. In this formal composition, the children are dressed in their finest clothes and posed in front of a balustrade. This arrangement suggests a desire to present a specific image of family status and respectability. Photographs like this, especially when framed and mounted, were important tools for middle-class families. They were a way of negotiating social identity and communicating aspirations through visual codes. The clothes, the setting, even the children's expressions, were carefully chosen to convey a sense of order and decorum. As a historian, I'm interested in the cultural work this image performs. By researching family archives, census records, and period literature, we can uncover more about the social values and anxieties that shaped its creation. Understanding those contexts helps us decode the portrait's message and appreciate its role in the visual culture of its time.