De "leraar" 1923

Erich Wichmann made this drawing, titled "De 'leraar'", in 1923, using graphite on paper. The tones are soft, like a memory fading at the edges. It’s an image that feels almost like a rubbing, a kind of frottage where the surface of the paper has picked up the texture of something unseen. This is drawing as a process, not just about making a picture but about feeling something out, like trying to find a form in the dark. Look at the area around the eye. It’s not really an eye, more of a suggestion, a dark smudge with a lighter circle within it, but it carries so much of the image's weight. Wichmann is reminding us that art isn't always about precision. Sometimes, it’s about the ghost of a feeling, the echo of an idea. This drawing reminds me a little of Odilon Redon's symbolist works; they both use a limited palette to create these incredibly evocative, dreamlike images. It’s a reminder that art is always a conversation, a back-and-forth across time and between artists.