[Female Javanese dancer, full-length portrait, seated, in costume, Paris Exposition, 1889]

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This albumen print shows a Javanese woman in traditional costume, seated and photographed full length, at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris. The fair, held to mark the centennial of the French Revolution, included colonial displays that presented people from French and Dutch overseas territories to large crowds, and performers from the Dutch East Indies drew considerable attention there. Portraits like this one were often made and circulated as souvenirs of such displays, so the picture records both an individual performer and the fair's wider interest in cultural spectacle. Its formal, posed setting is worth noting, since it reflects how photographers of the period framed non-European subjects for European audiences.

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