Koppen van een meisje en een man met een bril 1905 - 1906

This is a pencil drawing titled 'Koppen van een meisje en een man met een bril' by Carel Adolph Lion Cachet, housed at the Rijksmuseum. The work presents two heads drawn in a seemingly rapid, almost chaotic arrangement of graphite lines. The lack of shading and detail gives the work a sense of immediacy. The overlapping and conjoined nature of the heads challenges traditional portraiture's focus on the individual. Considering the tenets of structuralism, the pairing might explore a dichotomy, perhaps innocence versus experience, or male versus female. Semiotically, the glasses on one figure act as a signifier of intellect or observation. However, Cachet destabilizes this reading by rendering both figures with similar expressive intensity. The raw, unrefined quality of the lines draws attention to the materiality of the drawing process itself. The function of the work resides not in realistic representation but in the expression of the artist’s mark. The sketch invites us to see art as a site of experimentation.