Portret van een jonge vrouw

This photographic portrait of a young woman was made by Louis Robert Werner, active in the Netherlands during the second half of the 19th century. Carte-de-visite photographs like this one became wildly popular in Europe and the United States, and they offer us a fascinating glimpse into the visual culture of the Victorian era. During this period, photography studios sprung up in cities across the world, and people from a variety of social classes commissioned portraits of themselves and their loved ones. The rise of photography coincided with the growth of consumer culture and the middle class. While painted portraits had previously been available only to the wealthy elite, suddenly a wider swathe of the population had the opportunity to participate in the circulation of their own images. Looking closely at these cartes-de-visite, and other kinds of archival materials, allows historians to explore the nuances of social identity and class aspiration in the 19th century.