Scheppende man, naar rechts 1869 - 1941

Johannes Abraham Mondt made this drawing of a man digging, probably in the late 19th or early 20th century, using graphite on paper. It’s all about the marks, these quick, confident strokes that build up the figure. You can almost feel the artist working, trying to capture the weight and movement of the man. The surface is alive with these marks. Look at how Mondt uses short, broken lines to define the folds of the man's clothes, and then darker, thicker lines to ground his boots. There’s a real sense of the physical effort involved. The way he’s bent over, pushing the shovel, it reminds me of Courbet, the way he painted working people with such honesty. It's like Mondt’s saying something about labor, about the human body in action. Art’s kind of like that, a constant conversation across time, always open to new interpretations.