Portretkop van een man met een fez en monocle c. 1892

Curator: At first glance, it looks like a fleeting impression, almost as if the artist captured this gentleman in a dream. Editor: Indeed! Here we have Julie de Graag’s “Portretkop van een man met een fez en monocle,” or "Portrait Head of a Man with a Fez and Monocle," created around 1892. It's a pencil drawing currently held here at the Rijksmuseum. The light pencil work and the aged paper give it a wonderfully intimate feel. Curator: The monocle really grabs my attention. It's such a definitive symbol of intellectualism and perhaps even a certain social status in that era. The way it hangs precariously from that elegant curve... it's practically a character itself. It seems to symbolize seeing the world in a particular, perhaps privileged, way. Editor: Absolutely. Consider the fez as well. The wearing of a fez indicates cultural exchange between the Dutch and Ottoman worlds, or perhaps simply a fashion adopted by some of Amsterdam's elite, or it also suggests cultural connections. Either way, the adoption and display of such foreign markers carried significant social implications. We see a negotiation of identity on display through clothing that says quite a lot. Curator: And it really raises so many questions! Who was this man? What stories did he hold? It reminds me how visual culture holds cultural memory. We can look at his features and clothing, we begin imagining not just a man but a piece of his era brought back to us today, like an uncanny revenant. Editor: Precisely. What does it mean to display him now, in the Rijksmuseum, generations later? I find myself thinking about the institutional forces, even in 1892, influencing what we see today and why, how artists grappled with what was culturally visible and valorized, or even censored. Curator: It really illustrates the beauty that can emerge from the convergence of different cultural symbols. I look at this now and can reflect on its presence now in a modern Dutch gallery. This man can stand in as an echo of our past, perhaps hinting toward reconciliation. Editor: Agreed. The pencil medium and impressionistic strokes of his features really offer an openness of possibilities and connections, as do all the marks we've touched on today.