Twee leden van de Duitse Wandervogel jeugdbeweging c. 1930 - 1940

This sketch by Otto Verhagen depicts two members of the German Wandervogel youth movement with graphite on paper. I love the raw energy in these quick, decisive lines. It’s like a snapshot of a thought. The backpack on the figure at the back is so lightly drawn, it's almost disappearing. You can see the artist figuring it out as he goes, a real “drawing-is-thinking” kind of moment. Look at the way the shading on the figure at the front’s shorts is achieved with these hatched lines that are all going the same way, like he’s just scribbling, but somehow they create form. I love seeing the process laid bare, the artist not trying to hide anything. This kind of drawing reminds me of stuff by Egon Schiele, who also had this nervous energy in his mark-making. Art is always about these conversations across time, artists riffing off each other, and leaving space for us to join in the dialogue.