Portret van Franz Trautmann 1850 - 1914

This is Chrn. Riedt's lithographic portrait of Franz Trautmann. It presents us with a distinguished gentleman in a formal pose, seated comfortably, perhaps sometime in the mid-19th century. The image speaks to the rise of the middle class in Europe at this time, where portraiture was no longer limited to the aristocracy but became a way for the bourgeoisie to assert their status and respectability. Note the emphasis on realistic detail, a hallmark of the era's art academies, but also consider how new print technologies, such as lithography, shaped the proliferation of images and challenged traditional hierarchies of art. Portraits such as this one tell us about the subject and artist but also broader social values and structures. Historical archives, including census records, city directories, and institutional records, would help contextualize the identity of the sitter, Franz Trautmann. Such information could deepen our understanding of the social conditions that influenced the work. The meaning of art is always contingent on its historical and institutional context.