Portret van een vrouw 1897 - 1907

This is a portrait of a woman by Peter Clausing, and it looks like it was made with some kind of photographic process. The colours are muted and washed out and the tones are incredibly soft; I wonder about this woman’s story. The photographic surface is speckled with age and there’s something so intriguing about the texture of these old photographs – they are like a document, but they are also an object. The texture is really brought to life by the faded shades of brown and beige. Take the gentle curve of her neck, for example. It is as if it has been worn down by time itself. This piece is reminiscent of the work of Gertrude Käsebier, in how it manages to create an intimate and emotive experience out of a photographic portrait. Art is nothing if not a conversation across time, and it is in these exchanges that we find new ways of seeing.