Portret van Anna Maria Augusta Hilverdink 1852 - 1914

This is a portrait of Anna Maria Augusta Hilverdink, made with pen in gray ink and watercolor by Anthony Cornelis Cramer. The sitter’s fan and carefully arranged hair are signals of social status that speak to the public role of portraiture in the Netherlands at this time. Although undated, we can place this portrait within a tradition of 19th-century bourgeois art that served to reinforce social hierarchies by picturing them. The sitter’s garments denote a certain degree of wealth and her direct gaze speaks to the confidence of her social position. The Rijksmuseum, as an institution founded at the turn of the century, also played a role in shaping a sense of national identity, and works such as this were part of that project. Understanding the context in which this was made requires careful archival work, looking at sources that are both visual and textual to help understand the social and institutional histories that shaped it.