Portret van Richard Strauss 1917

This is a portrait of Richard Strauss by Emil Orlik, made using etching. Look at the intricate web of lines that bring Strauss to life. I can just imagine the artist, hunched over the metal plate, carefully drawing and scratching with a needle, coaxing the image into being. What was Orlik thinking? Maybe he was trying to capture the essence of Strauss's music – the drama, the passion, the complexity. There's a real vulnerability in the way the lines capture the subject’s gaze, the soft texture of his hair. It reminds me that art is about exchange. Orlik is in conversation with Strauss, transforming the composer's persona into this wonderful print. And we, the viewers, get to join the conversation too. It’s a beautiful thing, this act of seeing and being seen, across time and space.