Portrait of the Composer Alphons Diepenbrock, Joseph Jessurun de Mesquita, c. 1889 - before 1890

photographic support, h 218mm × w 124mm More details

Jessurun was the person responsible for introducing the late 19th-century painters and writers – called the ‘Tachtigers’ (Eightiers) – to the new prospects of photography. This portrait of the famous composer in his rumpled suit is an honest unadorned characterization. Jessurun wrote a guide for amateur photographers in 1889. In 1890 he took his own life with potassium cyanide.