Man met een pet en baard 1874

Willem Cornelis Rip made this pencil drawing of a man with a cap and beard, date unknown. Rip’s choice of pencil on paper is interesting; it’s a medium readily available to most people, not requiring expensive tools. The artist skillfully uses the pencil to create varied textures, the dense hatching suggesting the shadows on the man’s face and cap. Look at how the texture of his curly beard and hair is made with a slightly different technique to convey its soft, voluminous quality. Drawings like this are often seen as preliminary sketches, stepping stones to a ‘finished’ painting. Yet, the simplicity of the materials, and the directness of the artist’s hand, gives this work a remarkable intimacy. It connects the tradition of fine art with the more accessible world of drawing.