Portretstudie van een jonge man met wilde haardos before 1917

Curator: Here at the Rijksmuseum, we have a quick sketch from before 1917 titled, "Portretstudie van een jonge man met wilde haardos," or "Portrait Study of a Young Man with Wild Hair" by Matthijs Maris. Editor: Wild is right. It feels immediate, you know? Like the artist caught him daydreaming and had to get it down before the moment was gone. Raw and kind of romantic, no? Curator: It's definitely the loose pencil work that lends itself to that sense of immediacy. The artist clearly wanted to capture the figure quickly; looking at the paper itself, the visible aging hints at a utilitarian purpose. The toned, aged paper seems less precious, more of a work-a-day surface than a statement in itself. Editor: The wild hair practically vibrates with energy. And the gentleness in the eyes... I bet Maris saw something in this young man that the rest of the world probably missed. It is a sensitive sketch, wouldn't you say? Like a whisper of a soul laid bare on paper. The simplicity of it is what moves me the most; a bare minimum done to capture more than a photo ever could. Curator: That simplicity is precisely its appeal. With limited material—pencil on aged paper—Maris implies a world of emotional complexity, a product not only of the subject’s presence, but of Maris's skillful application of draughtsmanship. We must also think about access and the artist's own economic constraints or aesthetic choices. Editor: Right, right, you always bring it back down to earth! Still, it feels so fresh, even after all this time. I get lost thinking about what his life might have been like, captured so briefly. Did he ever tame his wild hair? Curator: That's the magic of the sketch, isn’t it? It’s not so much about what *was*, but about the endless possibilities of what *could have been,* or even what still might be. Thanks to Maris and a simple stick of graphite, he continues to exist, indefinitely. Editor: I'll second that, I like how Maris managed to give this wild-haired guy such quiet dignity with such simple, humble marks. Amazing!