Schapen 1881 - 1927

Johan Antonie de Jonge made this drawing, titled "Schapen," with chalk, perhaps on paper, and the beige color of the background is really doing it for me. You can tell that he built the forms of the sheep with layers of marks, with a kind of searching, scrawly line. There's something kind of great about the way he didn't fuss too much over the details. I love that the artist wasn't trying to make some kind of perfect picture, instead he was interested in the experience of looking and describing with a minimum of fuss. The chalk is dry and crumbly, you can almost feel the texture of it on the paper. In the middle sheep, notice the dark marks in the center, like a concentrated scribble – it almost feels like you're looking into the heart of the thing. It reminds me a little of Cy Twombly’s drawings, where the process is so much of the point. With art, the more you know, the more you realize there aren't really any rules, only possibilities.