Portret van Victor Hugo c. 1895 - 1930

This is an undated portrait of Victor Hugo, made by an anonymous artist. I’m really drawn to how the artist uses a limited palette to create depth and form. There’s a sense of layering, a build-up of tones that suggests an investigative process. It’s like the artist is feeling their way through the subject. Look closely at the area around Hugo’s face. The way the light catches his beard and forehead—it’s not just about representation. The artist is using the materiality of the medium to evoke a mood, a sense of contemplation. The monochromatic palette reinforces this introspective quality, like a memory or a dream. There is a textural quality about the whole image, as though it has been burnished or rubbed back. This piece reminds me of the work of artists like Gerhard Richter, who also explore the tension between abstraction and representation. It’s a reminder that art is always in conversation with itself, constantly reinterpreting and reimagining what it means to see and be seen.