Silhouette of a man facing left 1782

This sheet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art presents Asmus Jakob Carstens' "Silhouette of a man facing left", created with ink on paper. The stark contrast between the black silhouette and the cyan background immediately captures our attention, its neat frame reinforcing the concise form of the artwork. Carstens masterfully uses the profile to convey form and identity. The subject's features, sharply defined, suggest a personality through the curve of a nose, the set of a jaw, and the arrangement of his hair. The silhouette becomes a sign, stripped of detail, yet loaded with cultural meaning. It speaks to the late 18th-century interest in physiognomy, the belief that one's outer appearance reflects inner character. The work hovers between presence and absence, a study in how much can be communicated with so little. It invites us to ponder the relationship between appearance and identity.