Leeuw 1912

Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita created this image of a lion in the Rijksmuseum using pen and ink, and just look at the beautiful simplicity of form! I wonder what it might have been like for him to sit and make this drawing – maybe at the zoo, watching the lion. I can imagine him thinking about Matisse, and how to reduce a subject to it's barest essentials. The image is so evocative and emotional! And while we can’t know the artist’s intentions, I can imagine him wanting to get the emotional resonance of what it might mean to be an animal in captivity. It's such a difficult subject. It really makes me think about other artists interested in a similar theme, like Paula Rego, for example. It makes you realize that artists are in an ongoing conversation, always inspiring each other’s creativity. We can see how painting, as a form of embodied expression, embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.