Portret van een onbekende baby met een strik om het hoofd 1902 - 1908

This portrait of an unknown baby with a bow was made by E. v.d. Kerkhoff, but the exact date it was created is unknown. I wonder what Kerkhoff thought about while staging the baby? I feel for Kerkhoff and the challenges of capturing the stillness of such a young child, working with the shades of light to bring forth the essence of the baby's character. The monochrome palette is quite striking. It’s not just black and white but a world of grays, creams, and beiges, which blends the subject into the background. It looks like the type of painting that might take several attempts, failures, and intuitive corrections. Artists are always trying to have a conversation across time. Each stroke is like a question, a search for something that might not even be there. That’s where the magic happens, I guess.