_Sts. Wellewazus-Scheppenazius_ - Über eine Brüstung blickender Mann mit wilder Haar- und Barttracht (einer der über den Zaun blickenden Freier der _belagerten Schönheit__) 

Curator: Look at this striking pencil drawing; its full title is "_Sts. Wellewazus-Scheppenazius_ - Über eine Brüstung blickender Mann mit wilder Haar- und Barttracht (einer der über den Zaun blickenden Freier der _belagerten Schönheit_)." Currently residing here at the Städel Museum, it depicts a man peering over what appears to be a barrier. Editor: My first thought? Brooding. A palpable sense of melancholy hangs about him, doesn’t it? The way he’s looking down, like the weight of the world is resting on that magnificent head of hair. Curator: Yes, "magnificent" is one word for it! Consider that it's a male portrait capturing themes present in the Romanticism art movement but rendered in the very academic style of the time. The piece engages with Romantic ideals but presents them through established techniques, thus appealing to both convention and expression. Editor: There’s something beautifully contradictory about that…like rebellion neatly packaged. And the wildness in his gaze is intensified by the constraints suggested by this…balustrade, is it? Curator: Perhaps. It might also represent social barriers—the limits of aspiration or the frustrations of desire. This particular subject is titled as one of the suitors outside the enclosure. It brings questions to the power structures inherent to such imagery of conquest and romantic interest. How is the power dynamic of beauty constructed here? Editor: Interesting point...makes you wonder, who exactly are we seeing through whose eyes? Is he lamenting that he cannot conquer the 'belagerte Schönheit,' or lamenting something far more complicated and layered? Maybe he's realized he doesn’t want to even climb the fence... Curator: That speaks to a crucial element: the drawing offers no easy answers. By situating him as a 'suitor', we are presented with questions regarding desire, attainment, and social constructs which makes this artwork still relevant today. Editor: Art is just that...the more you look the more it looks back at you. Curator: Precisely, an observation perfectly fitting to take away from our consideration of Victor Müller's portrait drawing.