Portret van Wouter Hugo Tienruyter 1900 - 1920

This is a photograph of Wouter Hugo Tienruyter by Wilhelm Gerardus Baer. It’s black and white, so you know it’s going to evoke a certain mood, and the composition is pretty traditional, a gent in a suit. I can imagine Baer thinking about how to capture Tienruyter’s essence, through this stiff formality that was expected at the time, probably thinking about Rembrandt! The textures here are subtle, but they shape the image and how we read it. Look at the inscription across the negative. It's bold, confident, and it throws the whole thing off. It reminds us of a painter's gesture because the line cuts so brazenly into the image. It disrupts the seriousness of the image and brings a strange new energy to the piece. It’s like Baer is saying ‘Hey, I’m here too. This is also my mark.’