Portret van een kind met een hoepel c. 1864 - 1887

Curator: A rather poignant piece we have here, entitled "Portret van een kind met een hoepel"—"Portrait of a Child with a Hoop," created sometime between 1864 and 1887, by Carl Philip Wollrabe. An albumen print, if you can imagine. Editor: Ah, immediately striking—that sepia tone casts such a wistful veil over the whole image. Makes one ponder the long-lost childhoods frozen within these old photographs, doesn't it? Curator: It certainly evokes a sense of timelessness. If we consider the composition itself, the child, slightly off-center, gazes directly at us, almost confronting the viewer. Beside him, an ornate chair and the large hoop, hinting at a playful nature but tinged with a certain formality. Editor: Indeed! The hoop itself is fascinating—an incomplete circle perhaps a symbol of unfulfilled potential, childhood curtailed by the strictures of the time? Or even further...the shadow of a wheel of fortune always hanging on our shoulders. Deep man, deep! Curator: Intriguing idea. Technically, the albumen print process offers such rich detail, almost hyper-real. You can practically feel the texture of his velvet suit. But the tonal range is carefully managed, leading the eye directly to his face, our focal point. Editor: The contrast there is incredible – notice how that simple white collar flares from his attire; a symbol of pure hope that the portrait itself does very little to communicate back at us. The kid looks straight through me... I'm getting chills here. Curator: Wollrabe really was attempting to grapple with the very notion of how one represents innocence in a rapidly changing world. And, to be fair, capturing authentic expression using photography was still very early at the time... maybe it needed to look posed for him to register at all as sincere. Editor: Hmmm...sincere but detached? Still... it serves as a visual artifact but then...I come back to the formal starkness – and there is no denying that formal approach – not an authentic one! An early failure into how far one should control even simple narratives that come from childhood! Curator: Well, whether authentic or constructed, "Portret van een kind met een hoepel" offers a peek into a world long vanished, rendered with both affection and unsettling constraint.