Schets voor het portret van Hendrik Hooft Hasselaar (?) 1774 - 1837

This drawing, tentatively identified as a sketch for a portrait of Hendrik Hooft Hasselaar, was made by Charles Howard Hodges. The delicate white chalk lines on the blue paper support give the sitter an ethereal quality, as if Hodges is capturing not just a likeness, but a fleeting impression. Look at how Hodges uses line to define form. The lines are not just outlines but carry tone and weight that gives shape to the man's face and clothing. Consider how the subject is positioned. The slight turn of the head and the gaze directed off to the side lend the figure a dynamic quality, suggesting a moment captured in time. The book in his hands might function semiotically, as a signifier of knowledge or status, but more importantly it anchors the composition. Hodges’ sketch destabilizes conventional portraiture by presenting a study rather than a finished work. It invites us to consider the artistic process, and to appreciate the beauty in the incomplete, suggesting that a work of art can exist in a perpetual state of becoming.