Stephan Adolph Valepagi

Stephan Adolph Valepagi kept a tiny notebook where he sketched only hands, left hands, right hands, hands holding spoons, hands signing receipts. He trained as a clerk in Sibiu before the ledger columns gave way to oil paint. One afternoon he painted a woman’s hand resting on a ledger, the ink still wet, and called it Susanna von Klausenburger născută Adami, slipping her real married name into the title like a secret. Look up the painting’s blurred thumbprint; it’s the only place he left a trace of himself.