Studies van handen en ogen 1874 - 1945

Carel Adolph Lion Cachet made this study of hands and eyes with a pencil on paper. I love the immediacy of this drawing. It feels like Cachet was trying to capture fleeting gestures. Look at the hand holding a tool – maybe a pen or a brush? It's so tentative, so in the moment. You can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the page, trying to understand the way the light hits the knuckles or the curve of a fingernail. I wonder what Cachet was thinking about while he was drawing. Was he trying to understand human expression, or was he simply fascinated by the forms of the body? Maybe a bit of both? There’s a beautiful awkwardness to these lines, like he’s feeling his way through the subject. I think of other artists who’ve explored the human form like Jenny Saville and Lucien Freud. They are all in conversation, across time, pushing and pulling at the boundaries of representation. Each artist’s unique vision adds to the ongoing dialogue, inspiring new ways of seeing and feeling.