Bursche mit Hut 1921

Christian Rohlfs made this portrait, ‘Bursche mit Hut’, using earthy colours and some very loose strokes that together bring out the face of a boy wearing a hat. I can imagine Rohlfs working on this, stepping back, squinting, and then leaning in close to add a dab of colour here, a line there. It’s a dance, right? A back-and-forth between seeing and doing. He might have been thinking about the kid he’s painting and the colours he’s using. The paint looks thin, almost like watercolour, staining the surface. Look at the lines around the boy’s eyes – they’re so simple, but they capture something real, a sort of hesitant youthfulness. It reminds me a little of Paula Modersohn-Becker, another German artist who was trying to capture the essence of everyday life in her painting. Artists are always talking to each other, even across time. What I see here is a reminder that painting is about feeling, about trying to pin down something that’s always slipping away. It’s an invitation to slow down and really look.