Buste van een jongen 1914

Curator: Willem Witsen created this, Buste van een jongen, or Bust of a Boy, around 1914. It's currently held in the Rijksmuseum. It is, quite simply, a pencil drawing. Editor: There’s an almost startling vulnerability to it. The way the eyes meet yours...like he’s just been caught thinking something secret. The immediacy of the medium only enhances this impression. Curator: I agree, pencil work provides a glimpse into the raw process of artistic creation. Considering Witsen’s wider body of work and his connections to the Amsterdam Impressionism movement, it offers insights into the contemporary approaches of representing reality. Pencil as material is fundamental and was used for quick and immediate work. It shows the work can be art. Editor: I see your point. But you can't deny that it feels intensely personal, almost like a captured moment. The quickness isn’t just about material ease. The unfinished nature invites the viewer to participate in completing the thought. It allows our feelings about the boy to develop organically as we imagine the missing parts, almost inviting ourselves into his life. Curator: Considering the cost of different media, using pencil during this period democratized art-making to a certain extent. It suggests accessibility and perhaps even hints at the social class or status of both the artist and his subject, compared to oil paint. This realism places itself within the everyday lives of normal folk rather than wealthy folk and noble men. Editor: That might be too cynical. Can't we simply enjoy it for its evocative, childlike charm? Think about the softness around the eyes, the unfinished quality gives him a dream-like appearance, floating on a cloud, so much to be happy about... but even now sadness may visit him soon enough in his long journey of youth! It does give that feeling of youth and new ideas ready to set fire to his future. Curator: I appreciate the art history and romantic reading you give, I was focused on what kind of conditions of making this all needed, of being real rather than fanciful. But there's certainly no denying this drawing allows a deep human interaction regardless of perspective! Editor: Precisely. Regardless of our analytical entry point, art is the bridge itself.