Reliëf boven het portaal van het stadhuis te Nijmegen c. 1890 - 1922

This sketch of a relief above the portal of the town hall in Nijmegen was made by Johanna van de Kamer. She's working with a limited palette - black and white - but what she can do with simple lines, that's something else! You can feel the artist thinking as she draws, each line is intuitive, searching. There's a lot of hatching here, to make sure the lions and shield don't come out flat, and it really works to create depth and volume. Look at the lion on the left, see how the lines move around the form of the body, they give such a good impression of muscle. The whole heraldic design is wonderfully precise, like she’s really enjoying drawing all those leaves and feathers and intricate shapes. It's all so lively, it almost feels like a photograph! Like Ernst Thoms who also worked with printmaking, van de Kamer really knew how to make the most of the medium. Art is never really finished, only abandoned, but somehow this feels complete.