Fotoreproductie van het schilderij 'Portret van Lucas de Clercq' door Frans Hals 1893 - 1912

This is a photo reproduction by Johan Marinus Schalekamp of Frans Hal’s painting ‘Portrait of Lucas de Clercq’. The tonal range is very limited. The artist is clearly interested in the distribution of tone and mass rather than the details of colour and brushstroke that are so evident in the original portrait. You could almost see the image as an abstract field, of light and dark, interrupted by the details of the face. Schalekamp has isolated the subject against a neutral background. The face is the lightest part of the photograph, drawing our eye to the sitter’s expression. The contrast and depth give the portrait an interesting dynamism. Look at the folds of fabric across his chest and how they almost resemble an ocean wave. There's a quiet quality to this image that I really appreciate. It reminds me of the work of Irving Penn, or even Gerhard Richter, these are artists interested in the process of re-representation, not just capturing an image but also interrogating the nature of the photographic image itself.