Portret van arts Paul Antoine Dubois 1838

Curator: This drawing captures Dr. Paul Antoine Dubois as seen through the eyes, or rather, the skilled pencil, of Nicolas Maurin in 1838. What's your take? Editor: There's a compelling melancholic stillness, isn't there? The soft gradients of pencil on paper create a palpable, almost meditative atmosphere. The subject looks incredibly formal with his dark double breasted coat. I find his gaze, at once intense and vulnerable, really striking. Curator: I'd say it certainly exudes a certain air of respectability befitting a doctor. The early 19th-century bourgeois loved those solemn faces. But considering Dr. Dubois’ profession, could there also be a deeper reading? He's gazing in to the distance it almost seems as if he might be staring at death itself... Editor: Absolutely. Doctors, historically, have often embodied this paradoxical position within society – healers confronted daily by mortality. Maurin’s choice of pencil, its capacity for nuanced detail, subtly hints at the fragility of life itself. Curator: The fact that it’s a drawing and not a painting—and that it has the neoclassical and realism stylistic qualities of the era—almost softens the good doctor; the technique makes it more intimate somehow. It's an interesting counterpoint, since paintings were thought to be so powerful at the time. Editor: I agree. Pencil, a seemingly modest medium, paradoxically allows for this remarkable immediacy, this sense of direct connection with both the artist and the sitter. Think of the paper, too – the whiteness behind him serves not only as a tonal ground but almost as a void, pressing Dubois to the forefront, underlining his physical presence. Is it suggesting something like a soul, spirit, or élan vital of sorts? Curator: Could very well be, or the notion of genius… Anyway, Nicolas Maurin has certainly invited us into the private world of this serious gentleman of medicine. It feels like such an ephemeral work, on paper, so delicate. Editor: A fitting reflection on the precariousness of existence perhaps. A quiet yet compelling meditation on life, death, and the human condition in a society in the 19th century grappling with enormous changes, not the least of which was the medical revolution. Thank you, Doctor Dubois.