Portret van een vrouw 1860 - 1900

This is Eugène Gaujean's portrait of a woman, made with etching. The print is based on a painting that Gaujean saw, and speaks to the popularity of portraiture in the nineteenth century. The woman’s elaborate hairstyle and jewelry reflect the conventions of aristocratic portraiture, but there are also elements of romanticism in the soft rendering of her features. Gaujean, working in a time of shifting social structures, engages with themes of identity and representation. His delicate rendering of the female figure invites us to consider the gaze and the power dynamics inherent in portraiture. How might her identity been shaped by the expectations and constraints placed on women in that historical context? The emotional depth in her gaze invites us to think about how these expectations play out on a personal level.