Man met een pen in de hand en een figuur met een hoed Possibly 1943

Curator: Looking at this striking pen and ink drawing, dated possibly to 1943, we see Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita’s work, "Man with pen in hand and a figure with a hat." The work is part of the collection at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: It strikes me as deeply unsettling. The starkness of the line work, the flatness of the composition, combined with the direct gaze of the figure...it's almost confrontational in its simplicity. Curator: De Mesquita was known for his lithographs and woodcuts, often depicting animals with a strong graphic style. This ink drawing shares that intense focus on line and form, although the subject matter here, portraiture, departs slightly from his typical oeuvre. One cannot ignore the possibility that its materiality, cheap and easily sourced, reflects the scarcity imposed by wartime conditions. Editor: The figure holding the pen immediately makes me think of scribes and scholars from earlier eras. The hat has an almost biblical feel, yet the rendering is entirely modern, even modernist. Is this a commentary on tradition, or perhaps a self-portrait laden with symbolism of the writer as a solitary figure? The geometric patterning in the hat also seems to echo some medieval textiles, calling forward its status perhaps. Curator: The pen itself is central to our understanding. In his later years, teaching formed part of de Mesquita’s art practice: a sharing of tools and skills, but of power also. But look at how that power shifts into something powerless in this piece. We are given an illustration of how something readily available in the interwar years might carry less weight than it would previously in such oppressive times. Editor: It's also poignant to consider the historical context; given that he perished in Auschwitz one year after this was likely created. It feels very loaded with the symbolism of persecution and intellectual powerlessness. In its incompleteness too. What he didn’t draw tells as much as the lines themselves. Curator: Thinking about materials helps to unpack so much more, doesn’t it? A quick sketch speaks so profoundly in a specific historical climate. Editor: It certainly does. Symbolism and circumstance entwined, hauntingly so.