Portret van een vrouw 1875 - 1899

Jean Baptiste Feilner made this portrait of a woman with photography in the Netherlands, sometime between 1844 and 1912. The small size and oval frame suggests it may have been part of a larger collection of family portraits. During this period, photography was becoming more accessible to the middle classes, and portraits like these were often commissioned to display social status. Notice the woman's modest but well-kept attire, suggestive of middle-class respectability. It is highly likely that her clothes were chosen to emphasize her status in the society she lived in. The stern and rather conservative expression on her face is very much in keeping with the social conventions of the time. To gain a deeper understanding, one could investigate the clothing and photographic conventions of the Dutch middle class during Feilner’s lifetime. Old family albums, local historical societies, and archives are invaluable resources for piecing together the social context that shaped this image. As historians, we can use this portrait to examine how individuals presented themselves and wished to be seen in a rapidly changing world.