Man met gladgekamd haar en een vrouw met de mond open, naar elkaar gewend Possibly 1943

Curator: Look at this intimate piece: "Man with Slicked Hair and a Woman with an Open Mouth, Turned Towards Each Other" by Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, likely created in 1943. It resides here at the Rijksmuseum. It’s just pencil and ink on paper, so raw. What’s your initial take? Editor: It’s haunting, immediately. The faces are so close, yet there’s an undeniable tension. It feels like a conversation is about to erupt—or has just ended. There’s also something vulnerable about its sketchy nature, as if capturing a fleeting moment. Curator: Fleeting, yes! Considering it might be from 1943… knowing De Mesquita was later deported and murdered during the Holocaust... I wonder what kind of a moment it attempts to seize and preserve here. Look at how stylized the figures are. They seem to be on the verge of becoming pure abstraction. Editor: Absolutely. The lack of distinct detail throws the encounter between man and woman into high relief. The period is pivotal: many traditional social bonds were severely impacted or cut short in Europe during the Second World War. The lack of explicit detail also invites us, perhaps demands us, to reflect on intimacy, gender, and power within such contexts. Curator: I get that. But also... the open mouth. What's the untold story it is signaling? Is it meant to depict awe or terror? And the slicked hair, so stylized and perhaps signifying the kind of social facade one adopted just to get through life then? The image's strength lies in its lack of definition. Its sketch-like style amplifies ambiguity, opening countless narrative possibilities. Editor: Right! Is the woman silenced, or about to speak truth to power? Is the man a perpetrator, a victim, or both? Those sharp lines create as much darkness as lightness; nothing here resolves neatly. And there's something to be said about such emotional economy, isn’t it? Curator: Totally! Looking at it this way really highlights the drawing's raw emotional state and haunting nature even more. Thanks! Editor: My pleasure. It definitely puts history and emotion into perspective, that’s for sure!