Portret van een staande jonge vrouw 1860 - 1890

This is a small photographic portrait of a standing young woman by M. Martinez. With so little information, we need to look closely at the visual cues within the image itself. The sitter’s dress looks like rural folk costume. The studio setting, though, seems to be consciously evoking old aristocratic portraiture, with its draped curtain and decorative column. But unlike those portraits, this one presents a figure from outside the elite. This image may well be a product of the rise of national cultures in 19th-century Europe, when a romantic interest in regional traditions went hand-in-hand with the growth of centralized states. Photography played a key role in this process, as it allowed for the documentation and dissemination of images of folk life. To understand the picture better, we would want to know the origins of the photographer and sitter, and the kinds of institutions that supported the making and circulation of such images.