Portret van een onbekende man 1908 - 1913

This is Peter Clausing's “Portrait of an Unknown Man”, though we don't know exactly when it was made. It’s a photograph, and you can see how the tonality is so subtle, like a whispered conversation. Everything is muted, softened, the contrast dialed down to the barest minimum. Look at how the light catches the curve of his cheek, there's a gentleness, a quiet dignity in the way the light falls. The framing is interesting, too, how the circular vignette contains and focuses our gaze. The texture of the photographic paper itself, that slightly mottled surface, becomes part of the portrait. The tones create a mood, somber and introspective. You could imagine him as a character in a novel by Henry James, someone caught between worlds, full of longing. Clausing, who died quite young, had an eye for these delicate, almost ethereal images. It feels like a dialogue between the subject and the artist. It reminds me of some of the slightly later portraits of August Sander, also showing the human condition. Like all good art, it makes you wonder.