Silhouetportret van Philipp Christiaan Molhuysen 1809 - 1848

Editor: This is "Silhouetportret van Philipp Christiaan Molhuysen" by Pieter Barbiers (IV), dating from somewhere between 1809 and 1848. It’s an ink drawing and is very striking – so stark and formal. What do you see in this portrait? Curator: I see a study in contrasts, literally! The black ink against the pale paper creates a graphic punch, wouldn't you say? And though it’s a silhouette, it feels surprisingly detailed. The way the artist captured the gentleman's hair, for instance, it has a real lightness. This kind of profile portrait was popular, a quick and relatively inexpensive way to capture a likeness. Do you get a sense of the sitter's character from this flattened form? Editor: I suppose I do. There’s a certain…stiffness. I can’t imagine him laughing, can you? But how much can we really infer from what is essentially a shadow? Curator: Exactly! Isn’t that the question that portraiture always poses? It invites us to speculate. What did this Mr. Molhuysen do? What were his dreams? And does this silhouette bring us any closer to him, or is it just another mask? Editor: A mask of ink, perfectly preserved. It's strange to think of him only as this outline, existing perpetually in profile. Curator: Indeed. Art offers us little mysteries like that, whispers from the past prompting us to dream up our own stories. Each viewer paints their own version of Molhuysen, it would seem.