Dr. Louis Vintras 1904

Alphonse Legros sketched Dr. Louis Vintras, perhaps in sanguine chalk, sometime around 1904. Look at the looping lines that build the form of the face, the cross hatching that describes shadow and volume! I can imagine Legros in his studio, the model sitting patiently. The artist capturing the likeness with an economy of strokes, trying to find the essence of the man before him. It's an interesting dance, this struggle to coax an image from the void, isn't it? That line defining the mustache, for example, it’s so precise, so full of character. And the way the hatching of the jacket fades into the blank paper? Magical! It reminds me of Holbein’s drawings, the way they suggest more than they show. It’s like they’re all having a conversation across time.