Portret van Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom (?) 1594 - 1657

David Bailly rendered this drawing "Portret van Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom (?)" with pen in brown ink on paper. The composition is dominated by the cross-hatched lines, building the figure and the shading. The figure emerges from the texture of the lines. Note how the hatching doesn’t just describe form but also suggests texture, especially in the rendering of the beard and hair. The artist's delicate use of line to delineate the subject's features is a way of using signs to convey the portrait’s meaning. The form of the hat, created with sparse, curved lines, contrasts the clustered, angular marks that define the face. The overall effect is not just a likeness, but an exploration of how marks on a surface can construct the illusion of depth, volume, and presence. Notice how the cross-hatching serves a dual function: it models the forms and destabilizes the idea of a fixed, singular representation. It reminds us that the image is made up of the system of lines.