Jongen met kat bij een deur 1887 - 1916

Willem Pothast made this drawing, Jongen met kat bij een deur, with pen and ink. I love the directness of a drawing, the immediacy. Pothast shows such confidence with this humble medium. Look how he’s built up the archway with these delicate lines, almost like he’s knitting the scene together. There is a wonderful sense of light and shadow, and I love how he draws our eye into the space beyond, even though we can only see a hint of what's there. Notice how the vines drip down in front of the door, and how that is echoed in the gentle curve of the boy’s arm, and in the form of the cat itself. Look at how the boy cradles the cat. Pothast manages to convey a real tenderness in the boy’s gesture. Pothast’s work has a similar feel to artists like Aubrey Beardsley and Edvard Munch, those symbolists with their interest in dreams and the inner life. In the end, art is always a conversation, right?