Poet Onoprios Anopyan 1915

Martiros Sarian drew this portrait of Poet Onoprios Anopyan in 1915, and what strikes me is the directness of the marks. You can feel the artist feeling his way into the form, allowing the lines to build up and suggest the poet's presence. The ink, or maybe it's charcoal, has a real physical presence on the page; it's not just a smooth, flat tone. It’s like Sarian is wrestling with the material, trying to pin down this guy's essence. Look at the way he's rendered the hair with these quick, slashing strokes—it gives you a sense of the poet's energy, like he's got a lot on his mind. And then the softer, more tentative lines around the face suggest a quiet intelligence. I think of other artists, like maybe a Käthe Kollwitz, who used line in a similar way, not just to describe but to really convey emotion and feeling, so maybe it's like Sarian is in dialogue with other artists who seek a more emotional approach. For me, this drawing is less about a perfect likeness and more about capturing something deeper, something more elusive.