Untitled

Untitled

Image of a man looking at a photograph in his study. Visible in image: A bearded, balding man gazes at a photograph of a woman he holds in front of his face He wears a jacket and cravat, and has placed the photograph's folder on his lap with other items. He sits crosswise in a light-colored, wooden, high-backed chair with a dark cushion tied to the back at head height. Two other chairs, an open door, and a calendar on the wall are visible in the darker space beyond him. At left the "set dressing" (as this photograph is likely posed) includes a bookshelf laden with books and a handful of glass and china dishes on the top shelf, and a writing platform covered with paper or cloth on which lie three roses, and a squat glass vase with small flowers. On the wall hangs an ornamental implement appearing to consist of a decorated hook or bade mounted to a wood or bone handle. Among the items attached to this implement are (from top) crow feathers, a thermometer, a horseshoe crab shell, and a starfish. The setting of the scene and the man's pose imply a certain moodiness, and the viewier is probably meant to suppose that the woman of the portrait is a deceased or departed wife, lover, friend, or relative. The woman's real relationship, if any, to the bearded man or the photographer cannot be discerned. (Neither, for the matter can the man's identity, the date and location of the photograph, or the text on the calendar and spines of the books.)