Before August Sander
Likeness and Type in 19th Century Photographic Portraiture
Lecture by Jan von Brevern

During the 19th century the portrait was by far the most common form of photography. At the same time there was a vivid discussion about photography's ability to properly display people. What is being displayed in a photographic portrait of a person? The lecture revolves around how photography during its early years handled the portrait, having different approaches between individual resemblance and social standardisation.

Jan von Brevern studied art history, philosophy, and Romance languages and literature in Hamburg and Berlin. In 2010, he received his PhD from the ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich), after which he was a research assistant at the Art History Institute of the FU Berlin (Free University of Berlin). There he habilitated in 2020 with a thesis on the history of “naturalness”. Other focal points of his research are 18th and 19th century painting, art theory, and the history of photography. After holding professorships in Berlin and Munich, he is now temporarily representing the chair of art history at the University of Siegen since 2021.