Portret van Johannes Buma 1767

Rienk Jelgerhuis created this portrait of Johannes Buma using etching. It provides an intimate, though mediated, glimpse into the life of an 18th-century man. At this time, portraiture was largely the domain of the upper classes, reflecting a society deeply stratified by wealth and status. Buma’s gaze, though, seems to offer a challenge to traditional displays of power. He doesn’t look down at us; instead, there’s a sense of directness, almost as though the etching process itself has democratized the encounter. Jelgerhuis, by choosing etching, made art more accessible and suggests a shift in the ways identities are recorded and disseminated. What does it mean to see a man like Buma, immortalized through a medium that defies the elitism of oil on canvas? It invites us to consider the quiet revolutions constantly reshaping our understanding of who gets seen, and how.