Portret van een man op een stoel

This is a photograph, made by Jules Géruzet, of a man seated in a chair. Géruzet was active in Belgium in the mid-19th century, and he left us many portraits in this style. Photography was still a relatively new medium at this time, and these images were immensely popular. They democratized portraiture, bringing it within reach of a growing middle class, even if the results sometimes had a stiffness that seems strange to us today. Note how self-consciously the sitter is dressed, and the rather formal chair in which he sits: these are visual cues, designed to present a particular image to the viewer. The historian might look at sources such as trade directories, census records, newspapers and journals to find out more about Géruzet and his sitters, as well as the institutions, such as photographic studios, through which images like this were produced and consumed.