Vrouw met hart en fakkel op vuurspuwende slang 1896 - 1941

Nicolaas van de Vecht made this small drawing of a woman with heart and torch on a fire-breathing serpent, we don't know exactly when, using pencil and paper. There’s a really compelling sense of line here. The pencil is used to hatch shadow and create texture throughout, building this crazy allegorical vision. I’m drawn to the tonal range van de Vecht coaxes from his graphite. Take the shading of the snake, where the artist carefully and precisely builds the creature’s form. The use of pencil hatching lends a tactile quality to the piece, like you could run your fingers over the drawing and feel the scales of the serpent, or the folds of the woman’s robe. The composition is really interesting, the way the serpent's body seems to mirror the shape of the woman’s dress, all within this bizarre octagonal frame. This piece reminds me a bit of some of Hilma af Klint’s symbolist works, where she blends figuration and mystical imagery, creating work that sits between seeing and knowing. It’s this very ambiguity which gives the work its power.