Pierrot die een boek leest 1921

Lodewijk Schelfhout made this lithograph, Pierrot die een boek leest, at some point in his career. It’s a tonal image in shades of grey, built up with careful hatching and cross-hatching. Right away, you get a sense of a story being told, and that’s so much of what process is about; building something up, mark by mark, into something bigger. The texture created by the lithographic crayon is subtle, almost velvety. The light seems to emanate from the Pierrot himself, pooling on his ruffled collar, and the pages of the book, before fading into the background. Look at the way Schelfhout uses line to describe the buildings in the distance. There’s a real sense of depth and atmosphere, all achieved with these tiny marks. It’s easy to forget that lithography is a process of drawing, not painting. In some ways, this image reminds me of the work of Odilon Redon, with its dreamlike imagery and focus on inner states of mind. Like Redon, Schelfhout invites us to lose ourselves in the world of imagination.