Portret van een vrouw

Albert Greiner made this ‘Portrait of a Woman,’ sometime in the late 19th century. It’s a photograph, a relatively new medium at the time, and the portrait format speaks to the rise of a middle class with the money and the aspiration to emulate aristocratic traditions. The subject’s clothing is revealing. The high collar and covered chest are prim and proper, yet her sleeves are puffed and extravagant. We can interpret the subject’s ambivalence as reflective of a period in which the codes of social class were being renegotiated. Does the new technology of photography reinforce old power structures? Or does the democratization of portraiture suggest a more pluralistic future? The historian can look to sources like etiquette manuals and fashion plates to learn more about the social conventions of the day. Careful attention to the social and institutional context in which art is made allows us to understand its complex relationship to the culture that produced it.