Portret van een man met een strikje en een jas 1864 - 1893

This is a portrait of a man with a bow tie and jacket by A.L. Oversluijs, but its date is unknown. The portrait's small size suggests it was made as a carte-de-visite, a popular 19th-century photographic calling card, often collected in albums. These images provided a new form of social currency. In the burgeoning middle class, displaying portraits like this one became a way to assert social status and respectability. The stern, dignified pose, the neat bow tie, and the dark jacket, all speak to the sitter’s desire to present himself as a man of substance. The rise of photography democratized portraiture, making it accessible to a wider segment of society than ever before. As historians, we might examine census records, business directories, and other archival sources to uncover more about the sitter's social and economic background, placing this image within the larger context of 19th-century social and cultural history.