Portret van Prof. Dr. Jan van Geuns c. 1863 - 1866

Curator: Looking at this sepia-toned portrait, I can't help but feel a sense of… faded grandeur. It's Wegner & Mottu's "Portret van Prof. Dr. Jan van Geuns," created sometime between 1863 and 1866. We know it today as an albumen print, originating from a daguerreotype, a truly evocative pairing. Editor: Faded is right. It’s as if Professor van Geuns himself is peering out from a bygone era. The rigid pose, the slightly severe expression – it all speaks to a very different understanding of how one presented oneself to the world. A controlled performance. Curator: Indeed. The daguerreotype process demanded a stillness that must have felt rather… constricting. Think about the act of holding still for minutes on end! It’s interesting how that physical constraint translates into a visual one. Still, you get the impression he’s used to being looked up to. Editor: The hand tucked inside his coat – almost Napoleonic, isn't it? Perhaps intentionally? Though this posture has a long history, by this point it may as well have been a deliberate signal of learned, upper-class masculinity. The gaze avoids being too confrontational, suggesting decorum but perhaps also hinting at hidden layers of self-importance. What do you make of the book on the table? Curator: It lends him an air of scholarship, doesn't it? Jan van Geuns was, in fact, a professor. And perhaps this image also reflects a sense of… national pride, during a period of redefining Dutch identity. Photography played its own special part in building collective memories, as new technologies spread around the globe. Editor: Right, images like this became accessible in a new way, building visual familiarity and projecting an elite persona through wide distribution, so the nuances of presentation are meaningful. It’s this controlled, serious projection, typical of photographic portraiture from that time, which contrasts sharply with the selfie culture we have today. Curator: Absolutely. So, taking one last look at "Portret van Prof. Dr. Jan van Geuns", what remains with you most, then? Editor: I suppose what stays with me is the silence. The sitter is communicating within the limited social scripts of the time, carefully maintaining decorum, while withholding other elements of his personality. It almost feels voyeuristic to be peeking in like this, so many years later, in a vastly changed world.