Man's Suit 1935 - 1942

Curator: This rather somber drawing, titled "Man's Suit", was rendered by Henry De Wolfe between 1935 and 1942. Editor: It feels haunted, doesn't it? Like an empty shell, all formality and no substance. I imagine it swaying slightly in an empty room, the echo of a cough lingering. Curator: An intriguing read. Note the academic precision in the rendering—every crease, every button meticulously captured in this drawing medium. The artist adopts a decidedly realist style, something of a visual inventory. Editor: Precisely! It's as if De Wolfe sought to dissect not just the suit but the very essence of masculinity it represents. The headless void screams absence—the man himself has vanished. Curator: We can consider how this disembodiment can speak to anxieties of the pre-war period. The tailored suit, traditionally a signifier of status, becomes a mere facade—a hollow garment that does not guarantee identity or safety. Editor: Yes! I'm compelled to see something else too: an eerie precursor of the suits left behind after the war, like ghostly uniforms on some desolate battlefield of respectability and hope. It invites reflection on those we have lost or perhaps simply outgrown. Curator: A sensitive interpretation. I find the semiotic analysis potent—how De Wolfe utilises the suit as both surface and signifier. Editor: Thank you. I love it most, then, because this starkly still, silent object makes us ask: what kind of man *doesn’t* it take to fill a suit? Curator: Precisely, perhaps the viewer themself.