Portret van een Soendanese man c. 1921

Willem Witsen made this small portrait of a Sundanese man, we don’t know exactly when or with what materials, but it has a ghostly, etched quality to it. The palette is limited to a few shades of brown and a chalky white, which gives the whole piece a kind of sepia-toned, historical feel. But what really grabs me is the texture. The surface looks almost like it's been corroded or distressed in some way. The white marks aren’t smooth, they’re broken and grainy, which makes the image feel fragile and ephemeral. Look closely at the man's headdress. See how the white pigment is applied so thinly that the brown underneath peeks through? It gives the impression of something decaying, or maybe emerging. This tension between presence and absence is really interesting. It reminds me of the work of someone like James Ensor, who also used a muted palette and a rough, expressive style to create images that are both beautiful and unsettling. Ultimately, this piece is a reminder that art doesn't always have to be polished and perfect, it can embrace ambiguity and multiple interpretations.