Portret van twee onbekende jongens 1897 - 1914

This portrait of two unknown boys was made by Willem Hendrik Dikkenberg, though we don’t know exactly when. I think it’s interesting that the artwork is called a portrait when it’s a photograph. I wonder what Dikkenberg thought of painting? Did he wish he could capture the qualities of paint and texture into his own work? Looking at this work, I’m reminded that all artists are in dialogue with each other and with the art that has come before. I look at the light and how soft it is, and how tenderly the two boys are posed. I can see that Dikkenberg must have been thinking of Rembrandt and the way he captured light in his portraits. I wonder what he thought about when he worked? Did he hope that the boys would be remembered? The surface of the photograph, the way the silver shines, shows how he thought of the possibilities of what photography can do.