Portret van Zus 1925 - 1929

Otto Verhagen sketched this portrait of Zus on paper with graphite. The quick, light strokes of graphite on paper show the hand of the artist in plain sight. With a modest pencil, Verhagen captures not just Zus's likeness but also something of her character through a medium immediately accessible to the viewer. The softness of the graphite allows for subtle gradations of tone, bringing depth and volume to Zus’s face and hat. The use of drawing as a means to create art, and graphite on paper as a means to create drawings, have ties to wider social issues. Paper and graphite are affordable and convenient, which democratizes art making and allows artists to explore portraiture outside formal settings and social elites. The unfinished quality of the sketch—the visible lines, the ghost of her hand in the barely-there underdrawing of her hands—reveals the labor involved in the artistic process, emphasizing the significance of the materials, the making, and the context in which art is created.