Portret van de vader van de kunstenaar met viool 1896 - 1944

This is a portrait of the artist's father with a violin, made by Emilius Wilhelmus Dehé. It's hanging at the Rijksmuseum. The surface is worked, not smooth, and the gray and black tones feel like they emerged through a process of building up and rubbing away. I imagine the artist, Dehé, circling his father in the studio, making marks, erasures, reconsiderations. What was it like for his father to sit, violin in hand, for hours, under the gaze of his son? The father's suit and the violin are so solid compared to the background, which seems to dissolve into gray nothingness. The artist plays with our sense of focus – drawing our attention to the man's face and hands. It's like Dehé is asking us to consider the intimacy between them and the shared love of music. Painters work in dialogue. This piece makes me think of other artists, like Lucian Freud, who were also interested in the psychological space between painter and subject. Painting is an embodied expression. As viewers, we can bring our own memories and associations to the work, making meaning that is personal and ever-changing.