Anatomische studie van de nek-, buik- en bovenbeenspieren van een man 1906 - 1945

Reijer Stolk’s Anatomische studie van de nek-, buik- en bovenbeenspieren van een man shows the detailed muscles of the male form. Looking at all those lines, it seems Stolk wanted to know the body inside and out. I imagine he had to draw it over and over again. Maybe it was like the body as a landscape that you had to get to know inch by inch. You can sense the artist's eye traveling along the contours, tracing the rise and fall of each muscle. The lines are so tight and close, it is as if he is trying to compress all the information into this one drawing. It feels like he is holding his breath while he does it, like he is trying to capture something fleeting and fragile. It makes me wonder what he was thinking, what he was seeing, what he was trying to understand about the human form, and even the human condition. Artists often copy from each other and from life; they’re in constant conversation across time. Each one trying to better visualize the world.