Portret van een vrouw met baby 1860 - 1900

Max Kretzschmer's small portrait depicts a woman holding a baby, using a photographic process common during the late 19th century. Looking at this image, I can't help but wonder about the stories of motherhood, visibility, and representation that are captured in the frame. The woman, carefully posed, embodies both the societal expectations of maternal tenderness and the very real, embodied labor of care. The baby, swaddled in white, is a symbol of innocence, yet is also positioned as a subject within the gaze of the viewer. The act of portraiture itself raises questions about who has the power to represent whom. How does photography either reinforce or subvert the traditional roles assigned to women? What does it mean to capture a moment of intimacy and turn it into a public image? These are questions that continue to resonate today, as we grapple with issues of representation and identity in contemporary society.