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| Eduard Isaac Asser Portrait of the Asser family ca. 1850 photogravure (copper plate) Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Eduard Isaac Asser Euphrosine Asser-Oppenheim and her brothers ca. 1845 photogravure (copper plate) Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Eduard Isaac Asser Self-portrait ca. 1854-55 photograph Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Eduard Isaac Asser Charlotte Asser (the photographer's daughter) ca. 1842 photogravure (copper plate) Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
The photograph of Charlotte Asser (above) from 1842 must have been one of the earliest efforts in this medium by her father, the Amsterdam attorney and pioneer photographer Eduard Isaac Asser. Curators at the Rijksmuseum identify this portrait as among the earliest photographs made in the Netherlands. At this mid-point of the 19th century, only Queen Victoria's family in London was as visually well-documented as the family of Eduard Isaac Asser in Amsterdam.
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| Eduard Isaac Asser Carel, Rose, and Jeanne Asser ca. 1850-55 photogravure (copper plate) Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Eduard Isaac Asser Portrait of Nesje Asser ca. 1844 photogravure (copper plate) Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Eduard Isaac Asser Portrait of Tobias Asser ca. 1845-47 photogravure (copper plate) Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Eduard Isaac Asser Portrait of Lodewijk Asser 1856 salted paper print Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Eduard Isaac Asser Group portrait Asser and Oppenheim families 1856 photograph Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Eduard Isaac Asser Portrait of an unknown woman 1853 photograph Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Eduard Isaac Asser Portrait of a workman ca. 1854-55 photograph Rijksmuseum, Rijksmuseum |
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| Eduard Isaac Asser Girl and boy in stage costumes 1856 photograph Rijksmuseum, Rijksmuseum |
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| Eduard Isaac Asser Girl in ballet costume 1856 photograph Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Eduard Isaac Asser Portrait of a girl ca. 1854-55 photograph Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
The final portraits, made in the middle 1850s, manifestly display what a dozen years of hard work and experimentation could achieve – provided an enthusiasm like Eduard Asser's was available to exploit the new technology.
"In opposition to the readily accepted doctrine that the progress of humanity is ever onward and upward, more cautious reflection has been forced to make the discovery that the course of history takes the form of spirals – some prefer to say epicycloids. In short, there has never been a dearth of thoughtful but veiled acknowledgments that the impression produced by history on the whole, far from being one of unalloyed exultation, is preponderantly melancholy. Unprejudiced consideration will always lament and wonder to see how many advantages of civilization and special charms of life are lost, never to reappear in their integrity."
– Hermann Lotze, writing in 1864, quoted by Walter Benjamin in The Arcades Project, translated by Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin for Harvard University Press, 1999