Portret van een man met snor en bril 1915 - 1923

This portrait of a moustachioed man with glasses, likely a photograph, was created by Franciscus Antonius Gerardus Blöte at an unknown date. It's a study in grayscale, with subtle gradations that feel soft and almost painterly. There's a fading quality to the lower part of the image, like the man is emerging from a mist. This reminds me how the material qualities of an image can be so evocative! A seemingly simple portrait becomes about time, memory, and even disappearance. I keep coming back to that moustache, so perfectly formed, a solid dark line in contrast to the fading tones around it. Blöte's photograph reminds me of some of the portrait work of the German photographer, August Sander, who was making sociological portraits of the people of the Weimar Republic around the same time. Both invite us to consider the relationship between the individual and the collective.