Portret van Jan de Visscher 1863

This is Joseph Eduard Wessely’s etching of Jan de Visscher, produced in the 19th century. Wessely was working during a time of burgeoning national identities and the drive to define a nation through its cultural heroes. It’s worth noting that Wessely was Austrian and de Visscher was Dutch. This wasn't a commission; it was a choice. An Austrian artist, working in the 19th century, chose to represent a 17th-century Dutch artist. What do we make of that choice? Wessely elevates de Visscher through the very act of portraiture. He immortalizes him. But what does it mean to immortalize someone? How do we decide who is worthy? What narratives do we tell ourselves about artists, then and now, and how do those narratives serve the present? This etching asks us to consider who we choose to remember, and why.