Thomas Struth

Struth’s family portraits have little in common with spontaneously taken family snapshots. Due to the meticulous framing of the image and their frequently very large sizes, his images are more related to a painterly tradition. Sometimes they refer directly to existing paintings, as can be seen with the Falletti family, in which the mother has adopted a similar position as the courtier in the open doorway in Las Meninas (1656) by Velázquez. But also the way in which Struth involves his models in the realization of the portrait is reminiscent of the division of roles in previous centuries, when the portrait subject had, due to his position as the patron, an important say in the final product. There is no question of a patronage situation where Struth is concerned, but an egalitarian relationship is greatly valued by him.