Portret van Dr. P.J.H. Cuypers 1885 - 1918

Thérèse Schwartze painted this portrait of Dr. Cuypers with oils, and you can almost smell the studio. Look at those hands—they’re so sensitively done! The light catches on his knuckles, and you feel the weight of the book he’s resting them on. I imagine Schwartze, in her studio, really looking, trying to understand the person in front of her through their physicality, through the way the light falls. There’s a tradition here, a lineage. Think of Rembrandt, the way he looked at people, the psychological depth he achieved with just paint and light. Schwartze is part of that conversation, that attempt to capture something essential about being human. She asks herself: how can I show not just what someone looks like, but who they are? Painting is like that, a way of thinking, a way of seeing, and a way of feeling. It's an ongoing experiment, always learning from those who came before, and pushing the conversation forward.