Man with Top Hat 1882

Vincent van Gogh sketched this contemplative figure of a man with charcoal. The top hat is a prominent symbol of the bourgeois classes of the 19th century. This hat, and all that it represents, transcends its immediate context. We see echoes of it in Rembrandt's portraits of Amsterdam merchants, a tangible symbol of status, its dark silhouette reminiscent of the somber garb of the Dutch Golden Age. Yet, unlike Rembrandt's burghers, here the hat sits atop a man whose face is etched with the stark realities of life, a face worn by time. Van Gogh’s focus is not the material success represented by the hat, but the psychological weight of existence. The hat has resurfaced in different contexts since; sometimes it has been a mark of elegance, sometimes a relic. Through the ages, objects take on a life of their own, becoming vessels for the anxieties and aspirations of those who create and behold them.