Portret van Hendrick Waninghen 1648

Curator: Standing before us is a portrait executed in 1648 by Pieter Serwouters, titled "Portret van Hendrick Waninghen." This work, housed here at the Rijksmuseum, is an engraving on paper. Editor: My first thought is 'intense focus.' Look at that unwavering gaze, that incredible ruff! It’s like he’s daring you to interrupt his studies. I can almost feel the scratching of the pen against the paper. Curator: Indeed. Serwouters situates Waninghen amidst the Dutch Golden Age, a period where portraiture was often commissioned by the rising merchant class, a testament to their social status and civic contributions. His serious mood could be read as communicating integrity. Editor: Right! This isn't just some vanity project; there’s an air of duty and knowledge about him, doesn't it? You know I bet the book he is reading there might well have been some very contentious, even subversive ideas… look closer, you could spend days imagining who he was and what he really thought! Curator: We can see his station reflected through the detail afforded to his attire: notice his patterned doublet, itself communicating an elevated standing. What's interesting here, too, is how this engraving—a repeatable medium—democratized portraiture, making it more accessible beyond the wealthy elite. Editor: It’s strange though. I get a sense of stillness, the permanence that art allows when a specific time can live on like this, the subject staring directly from his lifetime into ours...it’s fascinating, somehow spooky! Curator: Engravings allowed for the broader dissemination of knowledge, and artistic trends to audiences wider than paintings typically could access. Furthermore, the very inscription beneath reinforces this production location and revision of image. Editor: You're so right; this piece just vibrates with significance and I think the image still speaks profoundly to our day. Curator: It allows us to really consider what kind of power or impression this would communicate across Dutch society in 1648. Editor: Precisely; Hendrick has become a little fragment of time caught in ink... timeless!