Ovaal met een kop in profiel naar rechts, twee benen en een kop met gesloten ogen Possibly 1943

Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita made this oval composition with graphite, layering heads, legs, and closed eyes. I imagine him, pencil in hand, circling round, finding form, losing it, and then finding it again. Have you ever looked at someone sleeping and felt that strange mix of intimacy and distance? Maybe Mesquita did too when he made this. You have one head in profile, alert with an open eye. Right beside it another head with its eyes closed. The lines are tentative, the bodies are out of proportion, and the forms seem to float. I feel like Mesquita is having a conversation with Rembrandt and other Dutch masters. Drawing, like painting, becomes a way to mull things over, a material process of thinking and feeling. It’s like he’s saying, 'Here's a body, or maybe just a feeling of one. What do you make of it?' And what I make of it, and what you make of it, is where the magic happens.