Portret van een jongen in matrozenpak 1892 - 1912

This small portrait of a boy in a sailor suit comes to us from the hand and eye of Jan Anthonie Eelsingh. I love the way the gray tones create a kind of quiet drama. The subtlety is what gets you. It's as if the photo is whispering, not shouting, and you have to lean in to really see it. Check out the way the light catches the boy’s face. The soft gradations are everything. How the eye moves so smoothly to the planes of the cheek. And look at the faint variations in tone. It’s all about this constant, almost imperceptible shift. All these little changes add up, and the emotional effect is huge. It reminds me a bit of the work of Gerhard Richter in the way it captures a sense of ambiguity and impermanence. It's a conversation, a back-and-forth between clarity and murkiness.