III. Pessima 1898

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec sketched this profile using graphite on paper during the late 19th century. Look closely, and you'll see not only a face but the skeletal outline of a small figure in the background, perhaps a toy soldier, standing guard, or perhaps a ghost. The face, seen in profile, evokes the classical tradition of portraiture, yet its modernity is striking. We can almost trace the lineage of such profiles back to ancient coins, where rulers sought to immortalize themselves. What does it say that Lautrec's subject shares the frame with a toy? That lonely soldier lurking in the background makes me think of melancholy, a figure that reappears throughout art history. We find its echoes in melancholic figures from classical antiquity to the Renaissance. Pessima is a reminder that images, and the emotions they evoke, transcend time.