Portret van een staand meisje met hoed 1882 - 1911

Curator: Let's turn our attention to this remarkable photograph entitled "Portret van een staand meisje met hoed," or "Portrait of a Standing Girl with Hat." It's believed to have been taken sometime between 1882 and 1911 by Adrien Louvois. Editor: Oh, she has such a melancholic aura about her, doesn't she? The textures are amazing. The stiffness in her posture, almost heartbreaking—makes you wonder about her story, frozen there. Curator: Yes, indeed. As a portrait from the late 19th century, we need to examine the production of photographic prints, which during this time involved meticulous chemical processes. Albumen prints, like this, were especially popular and required carefully coating paper with albumen, from egg whites, before exposure. The level of detail that such processes rendered reflects on broader social ideas concerning presentation and memorialization. Editor: The shadows and tones remind me of old storybooks I used to read, ones filled with ghostly tales and whispered secrets. Did folks really carry themselves with that much seriousness all the time? Curator: Well, photography was becoming more widespread, allowing access across classes to new modes of capturing identity. So while the well-to-do might parade themselves in finery, new markets in the making made it easier to engage the studio photographer to promote one's station. So to speak. But there was another thing too: posing times for portraits were longer at this point than they are for photographs taken these days. Editor: Imagine the labor and expense that goes into her elaborate garments. Look at the puffed sleeves, the little gloves—each piece screaming status and constraint at the same time. Curator: Precisely. Her apparel reveals a social milieu with intricate economic relations— the cloth makers, dressmakers, those crafting her hat, and all the merchants moving these items— each a node of work connecting the young lady to expanding market networks. And a rising merchant class who now sought to imitate aristocratic bearing and accoutrements. Editor: So much bottled up in that little frame. I almost feel a kinship with this serious, overdressed child... such echoes linger, like ghosts in an old photograph. Curator: A telling insight. Examining her world from a materialist viewpoint allows us insight to that complexity and a renewed reflection on the image.