Portret van een onbekende jongeman 1846 - 1860

Alois Löcherer, a leading photographer in Munich, made this albumen print of an unknown young man sometime in the mid-19th century. The photograph is a window into the culture of portraiture that was emerging at the time. Consider the sitter's attire: the carefully tied cravat, the tailored jacket, and the riding crop, all signifiers of middle-class status. The photograph flattens social differences but it also reproduces the sitter's social standing. Photography studios were expensive and mostly affordable by the wealthy, contributing to the construction of social hierarchies. Art historians can look at archives and other documentary evidence to investigate the social and economic conditions that made this type of portraiture possible. What did it mean to have one's picture taken at this time? What sort of social relationships were being performed in photography studios? These are the kinds of questions that situate the history of art in the history of society.