Portret van Trijntje Kramer 1889 - 1910

Johannes Laurens Theodorus Huijsen made this small photograph of Trijntje Kramer, likely in the Netherlands, sometime around the turn of the 20th century. The image is interesting in that it seems to present a girl in her everyday attire. Huijsen was a photographer in Hoorn, as the text on the image tells us, and he likely produced many images like this for the townspeople. It seems to be a relatively straightforward portrait. But how might we see the image as a document that comments on the social structures of its time? What does it mean to see a photograph like this in the collection of the Rijksmuseum today? By researching photographic studios, local histories, and the fashion of the time, we might better understand the world that produced this image. We can see the social history of art as embedded in such institutional and cultural contexts.