Portret van generaal veldmaarschalk Walther von Reichenau 1942

Here is a portrait of General Field Marshal Walther von Reichenau made by an anonymous artist. It looks like it might have been made with charcoal or graphite. Looking at this drawing, I wonder what the artist was thinking, what they felt while staring at their subject. There must have been a lot of questions in their mind. Was this commissioned? Did they have to suppress their own feelings to get the likeness right? Look how smoothly the tones are blended, and then, how quickly the artist defined the sharp edge of the monocle. It's these little contrasts that really show the artist's thinking, their way of seeing. In this case, the artist is part of a long conversation in art history; portraiture. It is an exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Like any good drawing, this one invites us to consider multiple perspectives.