On Devil’s Island

Here is Alfred Dreyfus in his cell on Devil’s Island, where he was wrongfully imprisoned for over four years. I think of Dreyfus all the time because of Proust, because of Zola, because of my grandparents—because antisemitism always has been and always will be. I look at his glasses. His pocket watch. The photos of his children. His military medal! The artifacts of a life torn apart. A society torn apart. It is consoling to paint Dreyfus. An act of engagement and remembrance.