Portret van een vrouw, staand bij een stoel 1860 - 1900

This is a photograph of a woman standing by a chair made by Charles Lemoine, a Dutch photographer who was active from the late 19th to early 20th century. The image is a window into the world of bourgeois portraiture during this time. In the Netherlands, photography studios flourished, offering a new way for individuals to record their likeness, reflecting the rise of the middle class and their aspirations. The woman’s dress and posed stance are visual cues of her social standing. The chair acts as a prop, a common feature in studio photography to give the sitter an air of sophistication. To fully understand this photograph, we can investigate studio practices, the history of portraiture, and the social history of the Netherlands. Looking at sources such as period newspapers, exhibition catalogues, and social commentaries, we can gain insights into the cultural meanings embedded in this image. The value of art, as we see, is contingent on social and institutional context.