Victor de Stuers (?) zittend met zijn benen omhoog 1865 - 1913

Bramine Hubrecht sketched Victor de Stuers, perhaps, with pencil on paper at an unknown date. The figure reclines, legs casually propped up, a gesture resonating with nonchalance. This motif, the raised leg, harkens back to classical depictions of gods and heroes at leisure, a display of power in repose. Think of Dionysus, often portrayed in a similar state of relaxed dominance, or the slumbering Ariadne, abandoned but poised in her rest. Consider how this gesture, laden with connotations of ease and authority, has traversed through art history. What began as a symbol of divine or heroic status gradually trickles down, finding its way into secular portraiture, now an everyday posture of relaxation. We see this symbolic shift echoed even today, in contemporary media. Could this pose be an echo of a collective unconscious desire for dominion over one's domain? It is a non-linear progression that continues to evolve.