Vincent Mentzel

Vincent Mentzel 1

Every day, we encounter silhouettes in our wallets: anyone looking at the portrait of then-queen Beatrix on the euro coins can observe that they hold a modern silhouette with that portrait. Not made of paper or with paint, but in durable metal. In the 1970s, Mentzel was known as the ‘Photographer of Power.’ He portrayed ministers and heads of state both domestically and internationally. Four times, Mentzel, whose oeuvre is largely preserved in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, created portraits of Queen Beatrix for a postage stamp and the aforementioned coin.