Portret van een vrouw 1890 - 1920

This small photograph, "Portret van een vrouw" was made by Gerrit Leenheer. It’s a quiet, reserved image with its subdued grayscale palette. I’m struck by the woman's necklaces. They’re heavy, beaded strands which create a tactile contrast to the otherwise smooth, almost ethereal quality of the image. There is an appealing, soft focus that smoothes the sitter's skin, while the ornamentation feels solid and grounded. The eye is drawn to the necklaces’ materiality and how they disrupt the otherwise flat plane of the image. It’s almost like Leenheer is contrasting different modes of seeing, the real and the ideal. The photograph reminded me of the portraits by Nadar, who also created images which manage to capture the emotional essence of the sitter. While both images lack the sharp focus of a contemporary photograph, they embrace the subjectivity of human perception, reminding us that seeing is not just about recording, but about feeling and interpreting.