Zelfportret met pet: B-1-1, 6 februari Possibly 1942

Cor van Teeseling made this self-portrait with pencil on paper in February 1942. You can see the bare bones of the artist here. The tentative, light marks of pencil sketching, so delicate, feel as though he is slowly conjuring himself into being. I find myself wondering what he was thinking as he made this image. Did he laboriously attend to the details of his face, or did he work quickly, trying to capture a fleeting moment of self-recognition? His eyes seem to hold a sense of introspection. The softness of the pencil marks creates a dreamy, almost ethereal quality, which invites contemplation. I see echoes of other artists wrestling with the same questions of identity and self-representation. This drawing resonates with the raw, emotional honesty you see in artists like Käthe Kollwitz. The physicality of the medium, the directness of the pencil on paper, lends a sense of immediacy to the work. It is a reminder that art is always an ongoing conversation, inspiring creativity across time.