Portret van een vrouw 1900 - 1910

This woman's portrait by Willy Dose, made with photography, is a moment captured, held still, and framed. Think about the surface and the gesture of a portrait. Here, contained within an oval frame, the subject gazes directly out with eyes that ask for a reciprocal gaze. What was Willy thinking when they took the photograph? I wonder if they knew each other. Did Willy offer her any direction? I find myself contemplating the shift in portraiture over the years. The relationship between the artist and sitter is so complex, and full of expectation. Each portrait echoes, responds to, and influences others, becoming an ongoing conversation through time. Each creator is in a dialogue with those who came before. As viewers, we can never definitively know someone's intention, and that's what is so beautiful about art. Meaning shifts and wavers.