Studie, vermoedelijk een dier c. 1905

This subtle pencil drawing, Studie, vermoedelijk een dier, comes to us from the hand of Carel Adolph Lion Cachet, and lives at the Rijksmuseum. You know, it’s hard to tell what kind of animal this might be. I can see that it might be a fragment, a larger image cropped from a sketchbook page. And what's really interesting is the handwriting, the artist's notes that surround the drawing, like a conversation happening right on the page. I often make notes and sketches when I am painting. For me, it helps to untangle my thinking. Maybe this page was a similar attempt by the artist to grapple with the subject. Perhaps Cachet was trying to capture something fleeting, to pin down an elusive idea. And hey, that's what we all do, right? We are all searching, sketching, and taking notes as we go. It's a kind of dance, a way of keeping the conversation going.