Staand mannelijk naakt, de benen gekruist 1792

Jan Tersteeg made this drawing of a standing male nude in the late 1700s, with black chalk on paper. Chalk is a relatively soft, yielding material, and you can really see that quality in the way Tersteeg has handled it. The form emerges from the gray background through controlled gradations of tone; look at how the figure appears almost to exhale out of the darkness. The artist has also made the most of the paper surface. Chalk will always leave a slight residue, catching on the fibers. Tersteeg seems to have actually exploited this, using the texture of the paper to his advantage. The result is not just an image of a man, but a record of a performance: the artist’s hand, guided by his eye. While this may seem like a straightforward academic study, it shows how even the most traditional artistic practices are deeply rooted in materiality and process. Appreciating that, we can move beyond conventional distinctions between drawing, design, and craft.