Karikatuur van een staande figuur met hoed 1906 - 1907

Curator: Allow me to introduce Willem Witsen's "Karikatuur van een staande figuur met hoed," a drawing rendered between 1906 and 1907. You can currently find it here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: My first impression? Ephemeral. Like a fleeting thought, captured on paper just before it vanishes. The toned paper gives it a ghost-like presence, fitting for something so sketch-like. Curator: I find that feeling interesting given that Witsen, while associated with Impressionism, really leaned into capturing a specific milieu: that of the Dutch elite. Is this maybe a record, even distorted, of a known character, distilled to hat and posture? What does it mean to see such fleeting work as preserved, revered even? Editor: And preserved through what materials? A humble pencil and, by the looks of it, a sketchbook—the daily bread of the artist. No grand canvases, no oils... this is the raw material of observation, made affordable. The question then becomes: why did *this* survive? What labor or context determined its life-cycle, even beyond the artist's intent? Curator: Consider the hat though. The exaggerated silhouette acts as an emblem. Hats were vital societal symbols; imagine the layered cultural cues packed into that simple item! It dwarfs the figure itself. The handwriting further implies annotations around process of caricature, of capturing and critiquing the subject's image, and maybe class, using something so material, immediate. Editor: You are drawn, if I can say, to the image itself, how the artist uses line to denote this meaning around class. What attracts me here is seeing process: counting notations for each character element. Maybe there is some deeper intention about capturing character in repeated lines to determine the underlying archetype the sitter wants to express to the world. That labor is just hinted at here in ink across what might otherwise look an unremarkable support. Curator: Perhaps, like any symbol, its true value emerges from what history bestows upon it over time. The sitter in the sketch here transforms—as do their surroundings—from tangible man to symbol, the meaning accruing with each observer. Editor: An idea that finds some foundation even within these most unassuming means. Labor turns to life turns to art. Interesting indeed.