Portret van boekhandelaar Bernard Alfred Quaritch achter zijn bureau after 1913

This is a portrait of the bookseller Bernard Alfred Quaritch behind his desk, and was made by an anonymous artist. The image has a tight tonal range, hovering somewhere between grey and black. The books on the shelves behind him are mostly illegible and undifferentiated. The whole scene is somewhat claustrophobic, except for the bookseller's hands, which have a surprising amount of contrast. They appear as pale and luminous against the dark ground, and this draws attention to the act of writing, and the knowledge contained within these objects that surround him. It reminds me of those early portraits by Lucian Freud, where the sitter is captured as if pinned under glass - yet also dignified and imposing. It leaves me wondering what the relationship was between the sitter and the artist, and whether the intensity of this gaze had anything to do with the process of sitting for a portrait.