Portræt af Carl Bloch 1903

Frans Schwartz made this portrait of Carl Bloch in 1903, and it's at the SMK. The way Schwartz uses these delicate lines really gets me thinking about drawing as a process of feeling your way through an image. It's all about touch, right? Look at how he builds up the beard with these tiny, almost hesitant strokes. The paper's got this lovely warm tone to it, and the ink kind of hovers on the surface. It's not about perfection. It's more about capturing a fleeting impression. Like, look at that single, confident stroke defining the jacket. It reminds me of a Cy Twombly sketch. This piece feels like a conversation, not just between the artist and his subject, but between drawing and seeing, being unsure and being sure.