Gezicht in profiel naar links 1890 - 1946

Curator: Oh, there's barely anything there, a ghostly echo of a profile. It's strangely compelling. Editor: This is titled "Gezicht in profiel naar links", or "Profile facing left," attributed to Cornelis Vreedenburgh and likely created sometime between 1890 and 1946. It's currently housed here at the Rijksmuseum. What we see is a work on paper using both pencil and watercolour. Curator: Watercolour, you say? It's incredibly subtle; I see faint suggestions of light and shadow, giving it almost a dreamlike quality. As if this face exists just on the periphery of thought. The very lightness lends an incredible amount of fragility. I’m imagining the sitter posing rigidly as the artist hovers, lightly moving to record her in pencil. Editor: It makes one think about the broader culture surrounding portraiture at the time. Was it intended to record social standing, preserve someone’s likeness for posterity, or something more intimate? Curator: Oh, perhaps just an exercise. Not all sketches blossom into oils. Sometimes, a suggestion is enough for me. Like music in a stave, but only just enough to create the full imagined song. Is it that there is enough to suggest this profile, or not quite enough to fully grasp the whole. And, perhaps, this in itself is its attraction for me. Editor: I appreciate your impression, that is really great way to put it. This period saw significant shifts in the art world, as photography rose in the art scene. It is important to observe these changing needs. It brings up discussions of public representation during these changing eras. Curator: That said, what fascinates me here is the absence as much as the presence. The minimal strokes speak volumes. So few marks suggest a depth of expression, an enigma contained within that simple tilt of the head. What I adore, is how such tiny moments can hold such depth of information about how we percieve beauty and the passing of the ages, no? Editor: Absolutely, in thinking of portraiture this definitely challenges my notions of likeness, challenging what a record actually suggests of an epoch! Thanks for those amazing thoughts.