Portret van een meisje, staand bij een fauteuil 1885

Curator: We're looking at a gelatin-silver print titled "Portret van een meisje, staand bij een fauteuil" by George Lodewijk Mulder, created around 1885. Editor: She looks… bored? Melancholy, maybe. I keep picturing her just wishing she could run outside and climb a tree. Curator: Pictorialism, the style we see reflected here, often focused on staging subjects in ways that alluded to painted portraiture, referencing both class and societal position, what is your interpretation of this little girl’s posture and place in society at that time? Editor: It's interesting; you have this luxurious, velvet chair beside her, but she doesn't quite sit. It's like the trappings of comfort are there, but not the real ease of being. The outfit also feels so...stiff. Like she's encased. I bet her bones ached for a different kind of movement Curator: Those material details point towards societal expectations placed on young girls during this era, particularly within wealthier circles, where appearance and comportment were paramount and where children of color or lower-income families were often absent from formal portraiture, reflecting existing socio-economic hierarchies. Editor: Exactly! She embodies that. But, looking closer...there's something subtly resistant in her eyes, maybe? She hasn't entirely succumbed to the role. There's a spark flickering there! Curator: I think you're right. Photography, while commissioned, still offers moments of truthful reflection, and sometimes those sparks are all the more apparent because of, not in spite of, the expectations. Editor: And to think what’s happening right outside of this constructed reality; revolution in some places, incredible new thoughts… it feels suspended. What’s your reading on it? Curator: Considering the context, the image resonates with tensions inherent to constructions of girlhood— the struggle between individual agency and societal expectations. Editor: I love that. It’s that tension that makes this photograph captivating. Even if the child could not perceive what she was projecting, someone did—now us.