Portret van een jonge vrouw 1890 - 1931

Klaas Schotsman made this small portrait, using photography, so a different kind of mark making, more like catching light, than pushing paint around a canvas. It's part of an album. Look how the tones shift, from light to dark, to describe the young woman. She's framed by a lighter surround that is itself framed by gold lines. It's all about capturing a likeness, but also about how we see, how we frame our understanding of the world. Look at the way the light falls on her face, how it defines her features. It reminds me of those old master drawings, the ones made with silverpoint, delicate, precise, and yet, so much about suggestion. It seems like Schotsman is in conversation with artists from a different era, grappling with similar questions of form and representation. What does it mean to portray someone, to capture their essence? There's no one answer, just different approaches, different ways of seeing.