Vrouw met sigaret c. 1908 - 1923

Ferdinand Oldewelt made this drawing of a woman with a cigarette in pencil, maybe as a study for a painting. The lines are tentative, searching, like he's feeling his way around the form. It's all about the process here, you can almost see the artist thinking. The texture of the paper comes through, adding a sort of rawness to the piece. There's an incredible economy of line, each one carefully placed to suggest volume and shadow. See the way he's used the side of the pencil to create those soft, smudged areas? It's a beautiful contrast to the sharper, more defined lines elsewhere. It's like he's trying to capture not just the woman's appearance, but her mood, her essence. This reminds me a bit of some of Degas' drawings, that same interest in capturing fleeting moments and the human form. It's a reminder that art is an ongoing conversation, a dialogue between artists across time.