Portret van prof. dr. H.A. Kooyker 1874 - 1925

This is Jan Veth’s pencil and watercolor drawing, "Portret van prof. dr. H.A. Kooyker," now at the Rijksmuseum. Veth, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, moved within Dutch intellectual circles, and his portraits offer insights into the figures who shaped that era’s cultural and academic landscape. Kooyker, depicted here, was a professor, and the portrait reflects the traditional visual language of academic prestige. Yet, Veth’s approach, with its visible construction lines, complicates any straightforward reading of power. The unfinished quality brings an intimate and vulnerable dimension to the professor’s image. Consider how class and profession intersect in this work. The meticulous detail given to Kooyker’s face, set against the sketch-like rendering of his suit, hints at the values and social hierarchies of the time, where intellect and status were carefully performed. The portrait invites us to reflect on the ways in which identity is both constructed and perceived, and how art can both uphold and question these constructions.