Hoofd c. 1916

Reijer Stolk made this drawing called 'Hoofd', which means 'Head' in Dutch, using pencil on paper. There's something so raw and immediate about a pencil sketch, isn't there? You can see the artist working through ideas, line by line, almost like a conversation. Here, the lines are light, tentative, crisscrossing to define the planes of the face. Look closely at the eyes – those dark smudges that convey so much intensity. It’s not about perfection but about capturing a feeling, a presence. The texture of the paper peeks through, reminding us of the physical act of drawing. It feels like a ghost of an image, unfinished and full of potential. It reminds me of some of those early sketches by Picasso, where he's stripping away detail to get to the core of the subject. It’s this sense of searching, of not quite arriving, that makes it so compelling. Art isn't always about answers; sometimes, it's about asking the right questions.