Overlæge C.V. Zahrtmann 1930

Peter Ilsted created this strange, dark portrait of Overlæge C.V. Zahrtmann sometime in the late 19th century. It’s hard to tell if this is a painting or a drawing, but there’s a very painterly quality to the whole scene. I’m thinking a lot about that moment when an artist decides to obscure and conceal, to shroud the subject in shadow. Is he trying to create a sense of drama, of mystery? I wonder what it was like sitting for Ilsted, the dim light falling across your face as the artist worked. The old man is caught in the act of reading. The book he holds seems to glow in the darkness, his wrinkled hands like gnarled branches against the bright page. Ilsted had a thing for interiors, didn’t he? He seemed fascinated by light, by the way it could transform a simple room into a space of contemplation. Perhaps he saw something of himself in the old doctor, a fellow traveler on the road of life. It reminds me a bit of Hammershøi. We’re all just trying to make sense of the world, one brushstroke at a time.