Portrait of G.S. Vereisky 1917

Boris Kustodiev’s portrait of G.S. Vereisky, was made with charcoal, in 1917, and right away you notice how the artist uses smudgy marks and lines to conjure a sense of form. It’s all about process, not just representation. You can really sense Kustodiev’s hand in this drawing; it's not hidden. Look at the way he models the face with those soft, blurry marks, and then BAM! – he hits you with a sharp, decisive line for the mouth and the edge of the jacket. It's like he's building the image right in front of you, revealing his thought process. He's laying bare the fundamental construction of the artwork. It reminds me a little of Schiele, the way he uses line to capture the essence of a person. Both of them seem to be asking: what does it mean to see, and to be seen? And can we ever really capture the true essence of a person on paper? Maybe the point is that we can't, but we can sure have fun trying.