The Restless Man (A Study)

Irving Petlin’s enigmatic, dream-like landscape features a lone seated figure who looks away from the vast, bucolic landscape that lies before him and instead gazes intently at the viewer. His pensive expression heightens the scene’s mystery. Who is this young man? Why does he look directly at the viewer? What is he thinking about? Completed when Petlin was 49 years old, the drawing may in fact be a retrospective self-portrait, a midlife deliberation on the persistent uncertainties of life and his place in the modern world. In this interpretation, the drawing’s title suggests that Petlin is the one wrestling with a restless spirit.