Portret Wim van Hooff 1944 - 1945

This is a red chalk drawing of Wim van Hooff by an anonymous artist, and right away you get a sense of how the artist built up the image through layers and layers of marks. The texture is really interesting here because you can see the individual strokes of the chalk, they really let the medium do its thing. Look at the way the artist used the chalk to create the shadows on the face and neck. It's almost like they're sculpting the face out of the paper with the shading. It's that process of building up the image gradually that makes the drawing so compelling. There's this one spot on the cheekbone, almost like a little sun flare, where the artist rubbed away some of the chalk to create a highlight, and this little mark really makes the whole face come alive. It reminds me a little of some of the portrait drawings by Käthe Kollwitz, especially in the way they use line and shadow to capture the weight and depth of the subject's personality. With these drawings, it's like you're seeing into someone's soul, even if you don't know who they are.