Portret van een jongen Possibly 1913 - 1926

Jan Gottfried Stütner captured this photograph, "Portret van een jongen," at some point in his career. Looking at this small, grey-toned image, I imagine Stütner carefully considering how to portray this young person. It feels like a study in tones – a way of seeing how light and shadow can shape a face, a jacket, a moment. I wonder what the boy was thinking, sitting for this portrait. Was he nervous, excited, or just trying to stay still? I see a connection to the formal portraiture of painters like Holbein, but there's also something immediate and intimate about it. Stütner makes me think about artists like Félix Vallotton, who played with light and shadow to create a sense of psychological depth. Artists are always building on each other’s ideas, finding new ways to see and represent the world. This photograph, with its quiet intensity, reminds us of the power of art to capture not just a likeness, but a feeling, a fleeting moment in time.