Sculptuur van Sint Hubertus van de beeldhouwer Franz 1876

This image captures a sculpture of Saint Hubertus by Franz, originally in Potsdam, taken by Sophus Williams in 1876. The monochrome photograph on card stock freezes a moment of devotional craft. The statue shows the saint in traditional garb with a hunting spear, accompanied by a dog and stag. The sculpture seems to have been made of plaster, perhaps for mass production. The act of photographic reproduction collapses high art and the ephemera of everyday life. In the late 19th century, the burgeoning photography industry turned art into a commodity, making art accessible to a wider audience. Photography democratized art, but simultaneously altered our relationship to it. The photograph becomes a token of experience, a relic of materiality. Sophus Williams documented the devotional object for a secular audience, collapsing high art and low craft into something for sale, questioning traditional definitions of art.