Portret van E.[(...)]. van Liero[(...)] op twintigjarige leeftijd 1901 - 1906

A. del Castilho made this small portrait of E.[...]. van Liero [...] at twenty years old using, it seems, photography. What’s really interesting here is the rendering of a real human being in shades of sepia, almost like a drawing with light. It has a tactile quality - you can almost feel the texture of the paper and the delicate touch of the artist as they worked to capture the essence of this young person. Looking at the detail in the lines of the coat, I imagine the artist carefully adjusting the focus, maybe even holding their breath, to catch just the right expression on the sitter's face. I’m thinking about artists like Gerhard Richter, who also use photography as a source for painting. There’s something about that layering of representation, the removal, that I just love. It creates a space for reflection. It shows how art is never created in a vacuum. Artists are always looking, responding, and transforming what they see. It’s all one big, messy conversation.