Schetsen naar een jongensportret 1827 - 1891

Curator: This sketch by Johannes Bosboom, made sometime between 1827 and 1891, is titled "Schetsen naar een jongensportret," which translates to "Sketches for a boy's portrait." It resides here at the Rijksmuseum. What strikes you about it? Editor: The sparseness, definitely. It feels like glimpsing an idea, a fleeting image captured quickly before it disappears. It reminds me a bit of a phantom. Curator: Interesting that you say "phantom." The loose linework and unfinished quality speak to the role of sketching in 19th-century artistic training, which served as an important preliminary process to other portraits by the artist. Consider how artistic knowledge and craft intersected in producing these preparatory portraits. Editor: The rapidness of the pencil really conveys a particular mood. If we think about how clothing functions, not just to dress but to signal identity and even belonging, that signal is very muddled. I can barely distinguish a shoe! But what is emphasized is the almost theatrical drape of what might be a cape, the boy’s hat, and the way that the sketch on the top-left looks as though his hood is obscuring the face—as if masking who he might be. Curator: Precisely. Think of the semiotic function of the attire, the implied power dynamics reflected through clothing and presentation. And perhaps, these are sketches in search of an identity—fragmentary studies waiting to be assembled. The overall image itself then raises important questions about the politics of representation. Editor: Or the psychology of image-making. These motifs of cloaks, covers, and hidden faces—what might they unconsciously express about social presentation and the artist’s eye? There’s almost something haunted about it, in a way that reminds me of how people use shrouds at certain rituals. The boy is not being hidden to mourn, but there is perhaps a sense that the full image is being repressed from emerging. Curator: Yes, there's certainly a veiled quality to it. I am now curious about its role within the artist’s personal evolution. The tension between revealing and concealing identity, the quick and restless gesture, is definitely telling and intriguing. Editor: Agreed, a truly evocative peek into the creative process.