Schrijvende Joanna Lion Cachet-Cordes c. 1935 - 1940

Carel Adolph Lion Cachet made this drawing of Schrijvende Joanna Lion Cachet-Cordes, we don’t know when, but it’s likely that it was made in situ. I love how the drawing feels like it's been scribbled into life with such immediate and frenetic energy. There’s a real physical urgency to it. Look at the layering of all those frantic little lines, scratching out the contours of the figure. The artist uses the most economic of marks, just a kind of shorthand to describe the play of light and shadow across the face. It’s such a confident, gutsy way of working. The top of the head is described by a mass of swirling lines which suggests the mass of the hair. Then, down below, look at the contrast in the more deliberate, careful lines used to describe the face, full of character. It's a bit like those quick portraits by Van Gogh, where you can feel the artist wrestling with the subject, trying to capture its essence in a flurry of marks. Ultimately, this piece shows us that art is not about perfect representation, but rather about a conversation, an exchange of energy between the artist and the subject.