Zelfportret: B-1-1, 25 april Possibly 1942 - 1944

Curator: This is "Zelfportret: B-1-1, 25 April," a self-portrait attributed to Cor van Teeseling, potentially created between 1942 and 1944. It’s currently held in the Rijksmuseum's collection, and it's executed in pencil. Editor: It has an unfinished, almost ghostly quality. The light pencil strokes give it a tentative, searching feeling, like the artist is trying to grasp his own essence. Curator: Precisely. Pencil as a medium can convey vulnerability, and within the context of the Second World War, a self-portrait might act as an assertion of identity amidst erasure, a need for bearing witness of the self and life around him. Editor: It speaks to the quiet resistance of the individual. Looking closely at the details in the eyes and subtle tension in the mouth, one almost hears a quiet hum of anxiety alongside resolve. You know, the formal constraints—realism, portraiture—underscore that feeling, of an individual pinned in place. Curator: The realism, though, does make one think of the broader artistic context. Perhaps he wanted to communicate a very relatable sense of interiority, using conventions known and understood at the time. This might reflect a deliberate strategy of remaining unseen, hidden. Editor: That’s fascinating. It’s as if the artist were strategically camouflaging his interior landscape. The conventional rendering shields it from scrutiny, like coded resistance language. What I feel in my gut seeing this drawing is anxiety, quiet resistance, even fear. Curator: I would agree, in particular with a sense of vulnerability. And also a sense of intimate observation, or self-documentation. We do not know definitively that this image dates from the Second World War. But the work leaves behind a visual artifact which holds possibilities and mysteries that echo throughout the course of history. Editor: Seeing van Teeseling's self-portrait reminds us how individuals negotiate their identities under historical circumstances, expressing hope even when it's obscured beneath a veneer of artistic tradition.