Kop van een man met een snor 1892 - 1913

Bramine Hubrecht made this subtle watercolour, Head of a Man with a Moustache, using delicate strokes and a muted palette, a testament to her commitment to process and observation. The sketch is so subtle. It’s all about tone, how the wash of diluted pigment creates form from almost nothing. Look at the way the artist has used the barest minimum of marks to suggest the bridge of the nose and the shadowed eye socket, it’s there and then almost not there. The colour is like wet sand, and just as transient. Hubrecht’s mark-making reminds me of Rodin’s drawings, where the line feels its way tentatively, as if feeling the form into being. Of course, both artists were working at a time when a certain kind of impressionistic, loose handling was in the air. What I like about this piece is its provisional quality, like an idea taking shape. It’s not definitive, it’s open.