Portrait of Rössing 

Here we see Carl Hoff's pencil drawing of "Portrait of Rössing" at the Städel Museum. The high hat crowning the sitter's head is more than mere fashion; it is a symbol, a vertical extension of self, proclaiming status and aspiration in the burgeoning bourgeois world. The hat, think of the Phrygian cap of antiquity, a symbol of liberation and revolution worn during the French Revolution, or the mitre of a bishop, a sign of spiritual authority. Our high hat is born of similar desires: to elevate, to distinguish. Yet, observe the ambivalence in Rössing's eyes. Is there a hint of unease beneath the veneer of respectability? This tension is not new. Even in ancient Roman portraiture, the weight of expectation and the burden of identity are palpable. Thus, the high hat becomes a stage upon which the drama of self-construction unfolds, revealing the perpetual dance between image and identity.