Portret van een staande vrouw met een stoel, aangeduid als De Ruijter 1860 - 1870

This photograph of a standing woman with a chair, possibly named De Ruijter, was made by E. Cornelisse. The format of the image—small, oval, and mounted in an album—speaks to the rise of photography as a bourgeois practice. In the absence of a date, we can look to visual codes, such as the sitter’s dress and hairstyle, to determine when it was made. The high neckline, dark color, and long skirt suggest a date in the mid-to-late 19th century. In this period, photography became more accessible to middle-class families in Europe and North America. The carte de visite and cabinet card became popular formats for collecting and exchanging portraits of family and friends, so they provide insight into social class. Albums like this one were often displayed in parlors, serving as a form of social currency, so they became social objects that expressed social identity. To understand this image fully, we would need to research the sitter's family and social context, as well as the photographer's practice. The image of the woman and chair provide clues to its social, cultural and institutional history.