Geschilderd portret van een man op een wand met goudleer in het gemeenlandshuis te Leiden c. 1900 - 1940

Richard Tepe made this painted portrait of a man in the Gemeenlandshuis in Leiden sometime between 1864 and 1952, using an unknown medium on an unknown support. It's hard to tell exactly what it's like from this distance, but I can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the canvas, building up thin layers of color. I wonder, what was it like for Tepe to be in that room, trying to capture the essence of this guy? I imagine the wallpaper almost distracting him, yet he manages to create this whole world. The frame around the portrait is so ornate it's hard to know where the painting starts and the decoration ends. It must have taken him hours to finish, just feeling his way through it all! Painters are always in conversation, you know? Tepe's work feels connected to artists throughout history, each one building on the ideas of the last. It’s like one big, ongoing game of telephone, with each artist adding their own spin to the story.