Zittende man aan een tafel 1865 - 1930

This pencil drawing by Jac van Looij depicts a man seated at a table, bent over in what appears to be deep thought or perhaps exhaustion. The posture of the man—head bowed, back hunched—is a visual motif resonating across centuries. Consider the figure of Melancholia, often depicted in art with a similar pose, embodying introspection and sorrow. This motif can be traced back to ancient Greek representations of mourning figures, each carrying with them the burden of thought and emotion. The act of inclining the head has long been associated with humility, reverence, or grief. This simple gesture, repeated in various guises throughout art history, reveals the enduring power of visual language. It speaks to the shared human experience of contemplation, reminding us of the cyclical return of symbols and their capacity to convey complex psychological states across time.