Portret van een oude vrouw met muts 1856 - 1875

This is a photographic portrait of an old woman with a bonnet, made by Johannes Wilhelmus Karsses. The oval format and the muted sepia tones give the image a nostalgic, almost ethereal quality. The woman’s face, framed by the soft textures of her bonnet, draws us in. Karsses captures not just a likeness, but also a sense of the sitter's inner life. Note how the soft gradations of light and shadow model her features, lending depth and volume to her face. This play of light is not merely descriptive; it constructs a narrative of age and experience, inviting us to ponder the passage of time. The choice of sepia tones can be read as a sign, a cultural code that speaks to the aesthetics and conventions of 19th-century photography. By employing this particular palette, Karsses situates the image within a specific historical and artistic context, while also subtly destabilizing our contemporary expectations of photographic representation. The result is a powerful meditation on memory, identity, and the very nature of representation itself.