Abklatsch van de krijttekening op pagina 19 verso 1885 - 1931

Here we have Willem Bastiaan Tholen’s sketch, made with chalk, it's like seeing the ghost of a drawing, faint and delicate, almost disappearing into the paper. The texture is crucial here, right? The paper isn't perfectly smooth; you can see the tooth of it. The chalk grabs onto those tiny peaks and valleys, creating this broken, almost pointillist effect. The lines are so soft, so tentative. It feels like Tholen was feeling his way through the form, letting the chalk lead him. Look at the way the figure emerges, or maybe doesn’t quite emerge, from the ground. It reminds me that art-making is a process of discovery, not just representation. It’s about searching, erasing, adjusting, never quite arriving at a fixed image. Like Degas, who was so into showing a drawing's evolution, Tholen’s given us a peek behind the curtain of representation. He lets us see the searching.