Ober met een dienblad in de hand c. 1917 - 1919

Otto Verhagen made this drawing of a waiter, probably in charcoal, and you can see the tentative emerging lines as the figure comes into being. I feel for Otto here, capturing a person on the go, his arm bent with the weight of the tray. Maybe Otto was sitting at a cafe, quickly sketching before the waiter moved on. Look at those soft, smudgy grays, the paper showing through. It’s not overworked, just the essentials of his figure, the quick lines of his apron, the dark smudge of his jacket, the way he’s leaning forward. That dark mark of charcoal across the jacket—it’s so casual, so intuitive. It reminds me of Manet, how he could capture a whole world with just a few strokes of paint. It’s like they’re in conversation, these artists, across time, always looking, always responding. It is an embodied kind of expression and mark-making that leaves space for the viewer, for you, to imagine and feel along too.