Portret van Jan Hamdorf en W. van der Pluym 1889 - 1949

Herman Moerkerk made this portrait of Jan Hamdorf and W. van der Pluym, probably with pencil and maybe a little bit of watercolor. It's kind of a casual affair, like a sketchbook page, right? I like the way Moerkerk lets the lines build up, like he's thinking through the image right there on the paper. You can see the adjustments he's making, the search for the right contour. It’s like we’re seeing the artist’s mind at work. Look at the figure standing on the left, the way the lines of his jacket sort of trail off, dissolving into the background. It gives the piece this feeling of being caught in-between, like a memory or a fleeting impression. It reminds me a bit of some of Philip Guston's more cartoonish drawings, not in style exactly, but in the way they both embrace a kind of raw, searching quality. Art's just a long conversation, and Moerkerk's adding his voice, leaving it open for us to jump in and add our own thoughts, too.