Portret van een onbekende vrouw, aangeduid als Dimmetje Boslang, laatste dienstbode van dr. C.W. Rossing 1890 - 1914

S. van de Plaat made this portrait of a woman called Dimmetje Boslang, who worked as a maid for a doctor, using photography. I love looking at portraits, especially old ones. There's something so mysterious about the way a person presents themself to the camera, or, in this case, how they were captured by the photographer. The sepia tones give it a soft, dreamy quality, like it's a memory fading into the past. You can tell that Dimmetje took great care in choosing her outfit. She has a lace collar and her hair is piled high on her head. Her expression is reserved, as she probably felt some sense of self-importance in being captured on camera. These old photos give us a window into another time, another way of life. It makes you wonder about all the untold stories, the lives lived, and the relationships between the sitter and the artist. And it reminds us that art is always a collaboration, a conversation between the person making the work and the person looking at it, across time and space.