Ontwerp voor een schoorsteenmantel c. 1928

Carel Adolph Lion Cachet made this design for a mantelpiece with a pencil. It's all light grey lines and sketchy details, like he's thinking out loud on paper. Imagine Cachet, maybe with a pipe, squinting at a grand room, trying to figure out how to make the fireplace just right. He’s probably thinking about all the fireplaces he’s ever seen, and how they made him feel, and then he’s trying to distill that into a few elegant lines. It’s like he’s whispering to the mantelpiece. The lines are loose, not too precious. It gives you the feeling that this isn't the first sketch and it won’t be the last. You know, other artists have done similar things, sketching out an idea before committing to the final piece. It's all part of the process, this back-and-forth between the idea and the execution. That’s how artists talk to each other, across time, inspiring each other to make something new.