Portret van een onbekend kind naast een stoel 1905 - 1910

Pieter Jan Nieuwstad made this small portrait of an unknown child next to a chair at an unknown date. The photographic surface is grey, giving the image a beautiful, muted tone. I wonder about the circumstances of its making: the artist carefully posing the child, adjusting the light, and waiting patiently for the right moment to capture their likeness. I imagine Nieuwstad making many photographs to get this exact image. The final print must have felt like a small victory. The little dress is so cute, right? And the chubby cheeks are perfect. But I guess that the kid didn’t have so much fun posing; just look at that face. It makes me wonder, what will happen to this image, one hundred years into the future? How will anyone interpret this image decades later?