Portret van een jongen c. 1895

Editor: Here we have "Portret van een jongen," or "Portrait of a Boy," a pencil drawing on paper created around 1895 by Carel Adolph Lion Cachet, currently held in the Rijksmuseum. It’s just a quick sketch, really, a sort of fleeting impression… I’m curious, what do you make of it? Curator: Fleeting indeed! It feels like peeking into the artist's private thoughts. I see more than just a portrait; I sense a fleeting moment of connection. Look how the tentative lines almost seem to hum with the artist’s process, those architectural-like elements, very stylized. There’s this… hesitant quality about it all. Editor: I hadn’t picked up on that hesitant quality. It also feels… unfinished, which gives it this airy feeling. Curator: Exactly! It invites us to participate, doesn’t it? It reminds me of those half-remembered dreams – vivid in patches but dissolving around the edges. Do you see how those stark lines create something more than just representation? Almost a dreamscape with mathematical qualities. Editor: A dreamscape, I love that! Are you referring to the sort of hard versus soft lines of a Cubist work? Curator: Yes, I believe you’ve picked up what I’m setting down. Cubism hadn’t been developed, however, so we see a work exploring this on its own. Perhaps it represents a shift to modernism as seen by Cachet! I wonder, was the boy real, or simply a figment given form by Cachet? Editor: It’s incredible how much you can read into such a seemingly simple drawing. I see so much more now, particularly that Cubist connection. Curator: And I now better recognize the true scope of the artist’s exploration! That’s the magic of art, isn’t it?