Portret van een onbekend man 1741 - 1795

Cornelis van Noorde made this portrait of an unknown man using pen and gray ink, with brush in gray, around the late 18th century. During this time, portraits weren't just about capturing a likeness; they were deeply tied to social status and identity. Looking at the man in the drawing, we see markers of the bourgeois: his ruffled collar suggests a certain level of affluence, yet there's a deliberate plainness in the execution of the portrait. Van Noorde, positioning his sitter in such a way, gives us an interesting tension between revealing and concealing aspects of identity. Think about the power dynamics at play when an artist decides how to represent someone. What does it mean to be 'unknown' in a portrait? Perhaps it encourages us to reflect on the many faces and stories that often go unrecorded in history. In its own way, this work is a testament to those figures.