Portret van een zittende vrouw met een muts 1859 - 1866

Jacobus van Koningsveld made this albumen print, ‘Portret van een zittende vrouw met een muts,’ sometime in the mid-19th century. Here, we see a woman seated formally in what seems to be an upper-class domestic interior in the Netherlands. The photograph, popular amongst the bourgeois in the Netherlands, served as both a memory and a demonstration of one’s status. Van Koningsveld’s choice to capture the sitter with a stern expression, hands clasped, in a dark, grand dress with a heavy shawl and fur hat is not accidental. In Dutch society, the outward display of wealth and status was critical for maintaining one’s social standing. As historians, we look to sources outside the image itself to better understand photographs like this. Census records and genealogical data can help identify the sitter, while fashion plates and domestic inventories help us interpret the visual codes of dress and interior design. The meaning of art is always contingent on these social and institutional contexts.