Portret van een man met snor, staand bij een tafel 1891 - 1912

This portrait of a man with a mustache, standing by a table, was made by Friedrich Carel Hisgen. It's a photograph, so the mark-making is all about light and shadow, a kind of chemistry. Hisgen has caught the light just so on this guy's face, giving him this real presence. Look how the light catches the edge of his jacket, making a strong line against the soft backdrop. The surface of the photograph itself has that lovely, slightly worn texture, like old paper. It gives the whole image a kind of warmth, like a memory. The gray scale is interesting - everything looks muted and velvety, and the soft rendering allows for your imagination to fill in the rest of the scene. I can't help but think of Nadar, that French photographer who also made portraits of important people. Both artists seem to capture something beyond the surface, a sense of character that lingers. Art, in whatever form it takes, is always in conversation with itself.