Portret van een onbekend kind c. 1871s - 1881s

Hendrik Gerard Gerstenhauer Zimmerman made this small photograph of an unknown child sometime in the late 19th century, likely in the Netherlands. It’s a formal portrait, the child posed stiffly next to a tufted chair. Photography was becoming more accessible at this time, moving from the realm of high art to a common method for recording likenesses of loved ones. Photography studios popped up in cities and towns across Europe. While portrait painting was still largely a pursuit of the upper classes, photography allowed middle-class families to document their existence and to participate in the production of imagery. But in what ways did these emerging photographic studios mimic the conventions of the art world? How might they have transformed those conventions? In cases like this, the art historian acts as a detective. By researching how studios operated, how people used photography, and how the rise of photography influenced painting and other arts, we can better understand the social conditions in which Zimmerman made this image and in which the child and their family hoped to be seen.