Boekhandelaar naast zijn boekenkraam op een kade c. 1900 - 1934

This is Pierre Comba's "Book seller Next to his Book Stall on a Quay," an ink drawing made in France sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. Comba’s drawing looks like a lot of quick marks on paper, but you have to remember all drawings start with just one mark, and then another, and another, until you end up with this bookseller in his coat. I love the cross hatching which describes the figure and his coat. The lines form an image out of the barest of materials. Comba’s bookseller is caught in a moment of contemplation. His brow is furrowed, and he is leaning into his labour. It reminds me of Daumier and his lithographs of Parisian life, how he saw the city as a theater for the human comedy. But where Daumier uses dramatic contrast and caricature, Comba uses a gentle touch, a soft light, and a quiet dignity.