Portret van Jan Frederik Willem Conrad

Theodorus Henricus Kerstel made this portrait of Jan Frederik Willem Conrad as an etching, and what strikes me is the mark making. It's all these tiny, nervous lines that add up to create a likeness, but also something more. Look at the way the lines build up the shadows on his face and coat, like a swarm of tiny marks working together. It’s a process of accumulation, where each mark feels tentative but, collectively, they gain confidence and mass. It reminds me that artmaking is also about being prepared to make a mess, to work through it until you find something unexpected. The map in the background adds another layer, suggesting the sitter's professional life perhaps, but formally it’s another exercise in linear description which echos the etched quality of the whole image. It’s like he's not just drawing a person, but a whole world of associations and ideas. You can see something similar in the work of Luc Tuymans, who also explores the intersection of history, memory, and representation through a muted palette and a deliberate rawness of technique.