Portret van Johann Peter Miller 1775

This is Samuel Gottlob Kuetner's portrait of Johann Peter Miller, created using etching, drypoint, and engraving. The portrait gives us insight into the visual codes of 18th-century society in German speaking countries. Miller, a man of learning and likely means, is shown wearing a powdered wig and a formal coat, holding a book in his left hand. The print was produced during the Enlightenment, a period that saw the rise of institutions of learning and the circulation of knowledge through printed materials. This portrait serves to commemorate Miller and his achievements and would have circulated within a limited social sphere, reinforcing social bonds and celebrating the accomplishments of its subject. To fully understand this portrait, we might turn to archival records and biographical sources to explore Miller's life and accomplishments, as well as the artistic conventions that governed portraiture in his time. The history of art shows us that even seemingly straightforward images like this one are deeply embedded in social and institutional contexts.