Portret van Willem III, koning der Nederlanden 1890 - 1949

This portrait of Willem III, King of the Netherlands, was made with etching around 1874 by an anonymous artist. I love the way that the etcher has embraced the tonal range, from the crisp white of the paper to the velvety blacks in the background. I find my eye is drawn to the area of his beard, the way it is so carefully rendered with fine marks, and contrasts with the broad, flatter planes of his uniform. The texture of the etching gives the portrait a tactile quality, as if you could reach out and feel the fabric of his coat or the weight of his medals. It's interesting how this work relates to photography, the new medium of the time. There’s something very Whistler about the somber mood and the carefully considered composition. It makes you think about the conversations artists were having in the 19th century about realism, abstraction, and the power of suggestion.