Portret van een onbekende vrouw c. 1905 - 1920

This portrait of an unknown woman was made by Koene & Büttinghausen. I love how photography, even from a long time ago, captures a moment, but also invites you to imagine a whole life. Look at the tones, how they move from light to dark to define the face, the clothes, the hair. The whole thing shimmers in a silvery way. The edges of the oval vignette around her head almost look like brushstrokes, don’t they? Makes you think about the relationship between photography and painting as ways of making a likeness. I wonder who she was, what her day-to-day was like. It’s amazing how a simple image can open up all these questions. It’s like a conversation that never really ends, just keeps going in your head. That's how art works; it embraces the unknown. It’s a process. Just like life, right?