Zelfportret met pet: B-1-1, 16 februari Possibly 1942

Cor van Teeseling created this self-portrait with a hat, B-1-1, 16 February, using pencil on paper. The drawing is dominated by delicate, almost ghostly lines of a reddish-brown hue. The texture of the paper adds a subtle graininess, contrasting with the smooth rendering of the artist's face and the soft cap. Looking closely, you’ll notice how the composition centers around the face, with the hat and collar framing it. The gaze is direct, engaging the viewer. Teeseling uses hatching and cross-hatching to define form, but the light touch gives the portrait an unfinished quality. It’s as if the self is represented as a process, an evolving idea rather than a fixed identity. The careful attention to the structure and form seems to explore not just what we see but how we perceive, challenging the notion of a stable, representational likeness. This act of drawing, of questioning representation itself, becomes a philosophical inquiry.