Portret van Karl With 1921 - 1930

This photograph, housed at the Rijksmuseum, captures Karl With in a reflective pose, his face resting pensively on his hand. This gesture, a hand to the face, is an ancient symbol of melancholy, of deep thought, seen across eras and cultures. Consider, for instance, Michelangelo's figures of the Medici tombs, each embodies this posture of introspection. It surfaces again and again, each time subtly colored by the cultural anxieties and intellectual preoccupations of its age. Here, in this portrait of Karl With, the gesture speaks to the modern intellectual's struggle with the weight of knowledge and the burden of progress. It whispers of the anxieties of a rapidly changing world. Such motifs are not merely aesthetic choices, they are powerful forces engaging viewers on a deep, subconscious level. They carry within them the echoes of past sorrows and anxieties, reflecting the cyclical nature of human experience.