Portret van een onbekende vrouw 1876 - 1880

Editor: This is a photograph from sometime between 1876 and 1880 by Jules Joseph Dubois. It’s called *Portret van een onbekende vrouw*, or *Portrait of an Unknown Woman*… and what really gets me is the woman's pose. It seems so… deliberate? I'm curious, what do you see when you look at it? Curator: Oh, isn't it delicious? That subtle sepia, almost like memories fading into a delicate lace-trimmed abyss! I love to think about who she might have been. Did she commission the photo herself, wanting to present a very particular vision to the world? Or, rather, to Dubois? Editor: Hmm, you mean her power might be in deciding *how* she’s seen? Curator: Precisely! Notice how her hand is casually resting on that ornately carved piece of furniture, adorned as she is with ribbons and trims? It screams "genteel", but it could be aspiration rather than actuality. I find the starkness combined with the fussy dress kind of jarring... Do you not get that sense? As if she’s carefully constructed an identity, layer upon layer, only to be undermined by a lingering melancholy in her gaze? Editor: That’s a good point! Maybe she is masking… perhaps not so successfully. Curator: Indeed! And the power dynamics at play are interesting to consider. It makes you wonder if all portraits, even photographs, are merely elaborate performances, orchestrated between the artist and the subject. I get the impression that our woman perhaps yearned for more than society was willing to grant her, so she crafted this carefully-curated photographic impression. What a statement. Editor: Well, that gives me a lot to think about – thanks! I’ll never look at an old portrait the same way. Curator: My pleasure! Sometimes, the whispers from the past can be heard most clearly through a thoughtful image like this.