Neus en een kop in profiel c. 1892

Editor: Here we have "Nose and Head in Profile," a pencil drawing on paper, created around 1892 by Julie de Graag. It’s held in the Rijksmuseum. There’s something very immediate and personal about this work…it feels like peering into the artist’s sketchbook. What stands out to you about it? Curator: Immediate is spot on, like a thought caught mid-flight. To me, it whispers of process, of an artist grappling with form. De Graag is playing here, seeing how much she can suggest with so little. Do you see how the almost violent hatching creates depth where a nose should be? Editor: I do. It's funny, isn’t it? The nose is both aggressively present and strangely absent, disguised behind these bold strokes. What could that imply? Curator: Perhaps a search for something beyond the surface. Maybe the angle wasn’t quite working; either way she was making something fresh! The nose becomes a stand-in for the unseen whole. Almost a kind of playful dance between the seen and the imagined, what’s really there and what you fill in yourself. Editor: So it’s not just about replicating reality but also about exploring the possibilities within it. I appreciate it so much more now! It feels less like a simple sketch and more like an experiment. Curator: Exactly! A peek into the messy, beautiful laboratory of artistic creation. It also reminds me not to get so stuck in doing things ‘right’, sometimes you just need to experiment and be fearless! Editor: Absolutely. Thank you; this has offered an inspiring invitation to embrace the experimental.