Studies van de poes Lola c. 1887 - 1888

Willem Witsen made these sketches of Lola the cat with graphite on paper. The immediacy of the work lies in the directness of the medium. Graphite is among the most unassuming materials available to an artist, and this sheet feels very much like a study, perhaps torn from a sketchbook. The artist has made no attempt to hide the traces of its making, allowing the materiality of graphite and paper to be present for us to see. You can almost see Witsen making rapid marks on the page as he attempts to capture the cat’s essence in a few strokes. Witsen was a leading figure in the Dutch revival of etching as an artistic medium, and one might see this drawing as a study for a print. The tonal range achieved with simple hatching seems to suggest this. The work’s value lies not in the preciousness of its materials or the time taken to complete it, but in the artist’s ability to see and record the world around him. It reminds us that art is not always about grand gestures or elaborate techniques, but can be found in the everyday act of looking and drawing.