Fotoreproductie van een portret van Margaret Butts door Hans Holbein before 1877

This photomechanical print reproduces Hans Holbein the Younger’s original portrait of Margaret Butts. The work belongs to a larger history of reproductive printmaking, a phenomenon that had profound social implications. Consider the status of portraiture in 16th-century Europe. While portraiture used to be reserved for royalty, it began to include the rising bourgeois. The image of Margaret Butts indicates the growing importance of individuals outside the court. Now consider the status of reproductive prints. These made images such as the one of Margaret Butts available to a broader public. The development of this technology aided in the wider distribution of portraiture, thus making it available to a middle class with aspirations of nobility. The history of art, then, is not just about individual genius, but about the social and technological conditions that enable certain kinds of images to circulate. To fully understand this image, scholars consult not just art historical sources, but also social and technological histories.