Hoofd van een jongen met een matrozenkraag, in profiel 1874 - 1945

This is a small head study of a boy in pencil by Carel Adolph Lion Cachet. I like how the artist is thinking through mark-making. The hatch marks of the pencil are almost topographical. I imagine him thinking, what does it mean to draw something? And I suppose he decided it means to build it up slowly, bit by bit, with a lot of delicate adjustments along the way, until suddenly you have it. That line describing the plane of the cheek. It is just amazing how artists can do that, isn't it? And there is something very intimate about this, like a snapshot. I think it may be what makes me love paintings and drawings so much: the way they seem to catch something so fleeting and hold onto it. It's like artists can turn the ephemeral into something solid, real. Like alchemy.