Portret van Otto Derk Gordon 1796

Curator: This is a portrait of Otto Derk Gordon, created around 1796 by Reinier Vinkeles. It's an engraving, so technically a print, currently residing here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Immediately, there's this stark formality that hits you. The rigid posture, the severe gaze. It's almost like a monument to... stoicism, perhaps? Curator: Indeed. We see that classic Neoclassical emphasis on order and reason, translated into the visual arts. Think about what was happening then. Gordon, as a Colonel deeply entrenched within the political climate, undoubtedly lived in interesting times. Editor: Absolutely, but the framing too, mimicking architecture… it seems to almost *institutionalize* him. Almost like it’s reinforcing the power structure. What more do we know about that power dynamic reflected in his engagement to political societies? Curator: "Pro Patria et Libertate" declares the inscription; "For Fatherland and Liberty." He’s presented not merely as an individual but an exemplar of civic virtue during an age of revolutions. It reflects, in a way, a need to solidify those values, the enlightenment meeting burgeoning nationalisms. Editor: And in looking, are we meant to implicitly affirm that very societal structuring it memorializes through viewing him so? Do we consider how even through its own construction, this print contributes to maintaining historical imbalances within political power structures that may extend even through today? I can see why, framed as a moment of power, someone would select to preserve and perpetuate such work, institutionally. Curator: These prints would have circulated, wouldn’t they? Far wider than an oil painting might. Reinforcing, solidifying a particular view... Even seemingly straightforward depictions such as this serve a social and political role, propagating ideologies that need interrogating further within intersectional perspectives of gender, race, and class. Editor: It gives you a chill. Not just looking at Gordon's portrait but thinking of how this engraving might've functioned and to whom it spoke and who benefited from such circulation of ideas... Thanks, it all certainly invites consideration. Curator: And so even in something seemingly simple, so much history remains in its threads. Thank you.