Portret van een onbekende man 1894 - 1913

Laurent Verwey van Udenhout drew this unknown man, with pencil on paper. I wonder about the relationship between artist and sitter. There's an intensity there, and it's all in the pencil work, isn't it? The paper is almost untouched, except where it really counts - to delineate the man's features, the set of his jaw, the line of his nose. I find myself sympathizing with van Udenhout, trying to fix the image of this guy on paper. But the blank space makes me think of erasure. Is the artist trying to forget him? The quick hatching of lines to suggest the hair reminds me of Van Gogh. Was he an influence? I can imagine them both sketching furiously in their own rooms, chasing a feeling, trying to pin it down before it vanishes. It feels like they are in conversation with one another, trying to capture light and shadow with these graphic marks.