Self-portrait c. 1809

Curator: This is Wouter Johannes van Troostwijk’s "Self-portrait," created around 1809. You'll find it here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: My first thought? Intimacy. There’s a rawness, almost as if he’s caught in a moment of reflection, a bit world-weary, wouldn’t you agree? Curator: Yes, that sense of immediacy is striking, almost modern, despite the frilly collar. It’s an oil painting, so you see how the light catches on the surface, lending a depth to his gaze, an earnest curiosity in his eyes. It feels like he is sharing an inner world with the viewer. Editor: He's using the studio almost like a stage. The placement of the busts in the background – symbols of classical mastery. That palette is key too—those daubs of paint, the real labor that goes into the performance. It makes me think about art's commodification—how the artistic genius is really bound up with skill and tangible materials. Curator: I’m seeing it too, and there is also an interesting push-pull in terms of his place in society. I wonder if painting his own likeness was in part, a strategy to find value in a world moving so rapidly around him? Editor: Interesting... but you know, even the 'self' is manufactured, to some degree. He chooses to present himself in a certain light, brushes poised, implying action and thought, control even, over how he wishes to be received. The loose brushwork gives it a slightly unfinished quality, further underscoring the performative aspect of artistic creation. The act of self-representation. Curator: Indeed, so it seems we see the artwork not as one solitary act, but perhaps, as many. As his legacy continues to change and impact how we interpret it through present and future eyes, a piece with the power to speak with time and to us. Editor: Absolutely. Each layer reveals something different, and it challenges us to keep questioning, to consider the layers of the painting as material, social and individual practice.