Kwart van lijst met bladranken en bloemen 1866

This delicate drawing was made by Michel Liénard, using ink on paper. This is one quarter of a page, filled with curling leafy foliage and flowers, which form a frame. The drawing feels precise, the product of a skilled hand. But even the best draftsperson needs to put in their hours. The ink is applied in many layers of shading, which gives depth to the design. The texture of the paper also plays its part, creating a subtle, mottled effect. Liénard has clearly mastered the use of line weight, with thicker strokes defining the edges of the frame, and finer ones rendering the intricate details of the flowers. This is the kind of drawing that would be used to help with decoration, maybe the design of a piece of furniture or the carving of a picture frame. These types of drawings are often overlooked, as they are not ‘the finished piece’, and this shows how important it is to also look at the stages of producing an artwork. The craft, effort and skill involved in the process deserves recognition as an artform in its own right.