Portretstudies voor het (onvoltooide) schilderij van de Nederlandse rechtbank in Londen, juni 1942: Mr C.W.A. Schürmann. Possibly 1942 - 1946

Anton Abraham van Anrooy made this sketch, Portretstudies voor het (onvoltooide) schilderij van de Nederlandse rechtbank in Londen, juni 1942: Mr C.W.A. Schürmann, probably in his studio. The cool neutrality of the graphite on paper gives it a sense of immediacy, like he’s just trying to get something down before it disappears. I can imagine van Anrooy quickly blocking in the essential forms of the composition, trying to capture not just a likeness, but also something about the sitter’s presence. I wonder what it was like for him to work on this portrait? What thoughts occupied his mind as he translated the three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional surface? The very act of drawing here is a kind of inquiry, a means of understanding the subject more deeply. You can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the paper, searching for the right lines and shading to capture the essence of his subject. Artists are always looking, borrowing, and riffing off one another, and van Anrooy’s is no exception.