Portret van Hermanus Jan Hendrik Rijkelijkhuizen 1814 - 1879

Curator: It strikes me as melancholic, almost Dickensian – that slight stoop, the bundles, the misty landscape. Editor: Indeed. What we have here is "Portret van Hermanus Jan Hendrik Rijkelijkhuizen," an etching by David van der Kellen, made sometime between 1814 and 1879. Now on display at the Rijksmuseum. A bit of a mouthful, that name. Curator: It suits him though, doesn't it? Sounds like a character waiting for his plot. What exactly is he carrying? Bundles, luggage...? Are those drawing supplies? Editor: It’s ambiguous, but given the period, and the somewhat romantic landscape backdrop, I’d wager we’re looking at a traveler – maybe an itinerant artist or surveyor. The composition directs our gaze outward with the man, toward those windmills in the distance— icons of Dutch ingenuity and enterprise. He carries his belongings, so, freedom perhaps. Curator: Or burden? He looks weighted down, but the stance conveys resoluteness, no? He’s on a path. And I love the light, ethereal in parts. I sense the vast open fields despite the small scale of the work. Editor: Scale is key. Being an etching, it compels a very intimate viewing experience. Think of the alchemists; they often worked in small spaces, meticulously rendering elaborate cosmologies within beakers. The miniaturist tradition, in general, connects our piece here to centuries of symbolic thinking on grand schemas. Curator: Yes, one almost holds one’s breath as they view. There’s such precision, such detail in miniature. Even his clothing, while dark, the subtle patterned weave in his jacket, brings a richness of depth. Editor: I find him intriguing as a kind of modern everyman, forever poised at the intersection of his immediate landscape, both external and internal. Ready for the open road of the next act... Curator: I like that… perhaps with a new canvas in tow. A hopeful conclusion.