Portret van Annie Cuypers 1850 - 1899

Wegner & Mottu made this photograph of Annie Cuypers using a photographic process sometime in the late 19th century. In many ways, this image speaks to the democratizing effect of photography. Suddenly, portraiture was accessible to a wider range of social classes, and the rising bourgeoisie embraced this opportunity to mirror the habits of the aristocracy. But let's think for a moment about the Cuypers family. Annie was the daughter of the famed architect Pierre Cuypers, who designed the Rijksmuseum itself! This simple portrait suggests a family keen to represent themselves as part of an emerging Dutch elite, even as they worked to define Dutch national identity. It's a window into how families used visual media to solidify their social standing. When we examine images like this, we’re not just looking at a pretty picture; we're uncovering the complex layers of Dutch social and institutional history. By consulting archives, letters, and other documents, we can better understand the public role of art and the politics of imagery in 19th-century Netherlands.