Portret van een onbekende vrouw 1869 - 1879

This “Portret van een onbekende vrouw” was made by Friedrich Heuberg sometime after his birth in 1840. It’s a cabinet card, a very common form of photographic portraiture at the time. Looking at her, I find myself wondering about the chokers and the high necklines. Perhaps this woman used these fashionable items to set the terms of how she would be seen. And what about the buttoned up clothing? What kind of control did women have over their self-representation? What emerges for me is the sense of a negotiation between the constraints of the period, and the small acts of self-assertion. The unknown woman reminds us of the delicate line women walked between conformity and individuality.