Meisjes c. 1922 - 1925

This drawing by Otto Verhagen, titled “Meisjes,” is like a whisper of a memory, rendered in pencil and some light watercolor. It's all about the process, isn’t it? You can see the artist thinking, line by line, figuring out the shapes as he goes. Look at how Verhagen captures these girls. There's one in the bottom left holding a stick. The pencil lines that define her skirt are so light and quick, they almost disappear into the paper. Then there's the girl to the right, her hair a soft halo of yellow watercolor. The colors feel both tentative and confident, like he’s feeling his way through the image, letting the paint lead him. It reminds me of the work of Paula Modersohn-Becker, who was also interested in the everyday lives of children and how to make this a subject for art. But ultimately, this work stays open to interpretation. The beauty of art is that it invites us to see the world in different ways, without ever offering a single, definitive answer.