Portret van een vrouw 1870 - 1900

Adolphe Zimmermans made this photograph of a woman sometime in the late 19th century. The image is small, a carte-de-visite, designed to be kept in an album or exchanged among friends and acquaintances. As photography became more accessible, it offered new possibilities for self-representation across a broader spectrum of society. Yet the conventions of portraiture, often echoing those of painting, reinforced existing social hierarchies. Consider the woman's attire, her reserved pose, and the studio backdrop. These details speak to a culture of bourgeois respectability that photography, as a relatively new medium, was keen to emulate. The Rijksmuseum's collection of photographs, along with period journals and studio records, provides invaluable resources for understanding the social and institutional context in which this image was produced and consumed. This photograph, therefore, is not just a record of an individual, but a window into the aspirations and values of a society in transition.