Portret van een vrouw Possibly 1913 - 1926

Jan Gottfried Stütner made this photograph of a woman, probably some time in the early twentieth century. Look at the darks that define the picture, the way they create a background from which this figure emerges. The woman is resting her head on her hand, and that little bit of staging, the way her eyes look off to the side, gives the image a kind of reflective quality. Even though it’s just a straightforward portrait, her gaze makes me think of the way some painters work, building up layers of color to find a certain mood. The way the light falls across her face and shirt, there’s almost something sculptural about the whole thing. It’s like he’s carving her out of the shadows. That small, tight format reminds me a little of the work of someone like Félix Vallotton – a painter known for his intimate domestic scenes and his portraits. It’s a reminder of how art is like a conversation across time. The way an artist sees something in the world, tries to capture it, and then someone else comes along and sees it differently.