Groepsportret van Pauline, Annie en Lily Holle en Belle Denninghoff Stelling bij een wenteltrap before 1894

Artist: Well, hello there. What catches my eye immediately is this old photograph. Before 1894, someone captured "Groepsportret van Pauline, Annie en Lily Holle en Belle Denninghoff Stelling bij een wenteltrap"—Group portrait of Pauline, Annie, and Lily Holle and Belle Denninghoff Stelling by a spiral staircase. Hendrik Herman van den Berg was the artist. Art Historian: It's amazing how a single photograph can whisper stories across time, isn’t it? My first impression is one of curated composure. Everything feels very carefully arranged. Almost like they are staging themselves as part of the garden. Artist: Staged, yes! There is a bit of that pre-WWI parlor drama, right? I keep imagining all the posing. Like a tableau vivant but in sepia. All that light just trying to cling to the whites in those dresses… what does the staircase evoke for you? I am curious about that, as well. Art Historian: Staircases, especially spiral ones, have been used for centuries to symbolize social ascension or spiritual seeking. Think of the Tower of Babel, or even just fairytale castles! Here, I see it anchoring them to both earth and the potential for… something more, or beyond what’s immediately visible in their world. And the women themselves…notice how one is set slightly apart? It almost creates a visual hierarchy within their group dynamic. Artist: True, that figure standing on the staircase holds that strong triangular gaze...But I find the gaze that strikes me is in that of the woman in dark attire who stands grounded in front of the greenery, right at ground level. Art Historian: Oh, an earth-bound goddess, you see there? Artist: Precisely! There is this immediate contrast between the floral in her sleeves and her firm position there at eye level that grounds the entire image. Art Historian: I like how you pointed out that grounding. Thinking about what’s enduring about portraiture over time, it's always been about identity, relationships, and self-presentation, and seeing ourselves through the gaze of the world. Even back then! It is quite powerful, yes. Artist: Precisely so. Thank you for pointing all of that out. It makes me want to pull my watercolors out to find the essence in a photograph almost one hundred and thirty years old! Art Historian: I leave this artwork thinking of all these subtle, yet deeply intentional semiotic moves. It reminds me of how even our snapshots contain so much embedded meaning, for those who will see them years from now.