Portret van Sara Troost 1742 - 1750

Curator: Here at the Rijksmuseum, we have Cornelis Troost’s rendering of Sara Troost, created somewhere between 1742 and 1750. Editor: It’s evocative, this charcoal drawing; the sitter almost seems to glow from within, like a delicate, faded photograph. The texture from this rendering feels intimate—do you think it captures a truth of character? Curator: I believe Troost does. Sara, I imagine, was quietly intelligent. Note how the Baroque style, popular during the Dutch Golden Age, melds so interestingly with portraiture here, don't you think? Editor: The application of charcoal adds such softness, something rather profound happens in how her expression emerges; the gaze suggests contemplation, maybe a little sadness… The rendering captures something deeply humane. It avoids a graphic linearity, or even the use of outlines; it feels so natural and almost painterly with it's tone changes. Curator: Charcoal drawings offered artists a greater capacity to create shadow and dimension, lending their works an air of sophistication which brings so much humanity, as you pointed out! It must have taken so much planning beforehand... But I guess Troost managed to capture a little piece of eternity there. Editor: Yes, a fragment caught in monochrome, and this focus also enables the face to take the light—we see Troost’s attempt to seize Sara in a time that isn't frozen; this feels like a slice of an immediate, rather real presence! Even if only partially seen through today's perspective. Curator: Perhaps its incompleteness contributes to that very real presence, that intimate and yet, in a sense, unfixed quality you picked up. Editor: Quite so! The drawing lives on, after all, with so much left open to feeling. What will you be thinking about after this today?