Portret van Nicolas Jarry

Editor: This is "Portrait of Nicolas Jarry" from 1782, by Pieter Willem van Megen, it's an engraving. It has a certain…stiffness to it, like everyone was told not to move a muscle. I'm curious about your insights—what do you make of this work? Curator: Stiffness, yes, it’s so interesting you say that! This print gives us a peephole into a time when portraits were currency—demonstrations of status, pronouncements of power! Look at Nicolas, Captain of the ship Vlissinger; the lines so precise, so deliberately carved into the plate! I imagine van Megen seeing himself a kind of sculptor in ink, don't you think? I find it difficult not to. Editor: It does feel quite intentional! It's hard to see any room for mistakes with the engraving, the lines are incredibly fine. Does the ship add any context? Curator: Oh, everything breathes context! He is more than a man; he embodies the strength, ambition and ruthlessness of a privateer during a period of fierce naval competition! This portrait is his self-mythologizing writ in ink. I wonder how closely his portrait resembled him...a tricky and complex question to ask! Editor: Self-mythologizing... I hadn’t considered that! Now, everything from the ship in the background to the instrument at the bottom, even the somewhat unflattering pose, feel more purposeful. Curator: Precisely! Art always dances with the truth, rarely holds its hand! And perhaps, dear student, this applies to art historians as well, don't you think? Editor: Indeed! Thanks, I am off to re-consider all portraits as a carefully constructed self-image.