Portrait of a Young Man

The composition of this painting that portrays the artist Karl Hutloff (1896–?) resembles a 1912 self-portrait by the German painter Heinrich Assmann (1890–1915), which hung in the Felix Nussbaum family home.  The similarities between the two canvases are striking: the figures are posed almost identically, in a virtually empty room, hands stuffed in trouser pockets, gazing coolly out of the picture.  In both images, the subject is identified as an artist by the inclusion of canvases in the background.

The differences, however, are equally revealing.  Hutloff’s proper bourgeois attire—a dark jacket, pinstriped trousers, and bow tie—contrasts with Assmann’s decidedly working-class shirtsleeves.  This figure is an artist, but he is not dressed as he would be to paint.  He seems ready instead to meet with dealers and collectors.