Torso en een gespierde bovenarm van een naakte man 1906 - 1945

Reijer Stolk made this sketch of a torso and muscular arm sometime before 1945. It's all in graphite on paper, a pretty standard medium, but look at the energy! You can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the page, trying to capture the contours of the body, one flowing line after another. I imagine Stolk standing in front of the model, squinting, head cocked to one side, trying to get the proportions just right. What was he thinking as he worked? Was he trying to capture the raw, animalistic power of the human form? The way the light played across the muscles? Or was he just trying to nail the assignment? Look at those lines, they're so light and tentative, but also so confident and sure. You can see him grappling with the weight and presence of the body. It reminds me of other artists like Rodin who were obsessed with capturing the dynamism of the human body. It's all one big conversation, isn’t it? This embrace of ambiguity, this invitation for multiple readings...it's what makes art so damn exciting.