Romp en benen van een lopende man Possibly 1652

This is a drawing of a torso and legs of a walking man by Harmen ter Borch, held at the Rijksmuseum. It was made using graphite on paper. The sketch has a directness in its structural economy and it has the feeling of something captured in motion. The figure is suggested with a simple arrangement of lines and shaded areas to communicate form and the distribution of weight in the stride. Note how the orientation and angle of the body seem to convey movement and momentum, so the semiotic system creates not just an image of a figure but also suggests the action of walking. The artist deftly uses line and shadow to depict the complex mechanics of human locomotion. This is not just representational. Ter Borch is engaging in a dialogue about how we perceive and understand movement in art.