Portret van Nanne Fokke Hofstee 1976

This is a portrait of Nanne Fokke Hofstee, created by Rein Dool in 1976. I can imagine Dool with his stick of charcoal, circling around the page, building up the image line by line. There is a nervous energy to the marks, look at how the lines around the eye socket are dark and deep, giving the portrait an emotional charge. He is looking at us but the furrowed brow suggests a man deep in thought. You can see how Dool is thinking through his drawing, looking closely, searching, circling, feeling his way through this face. The mouth and mustache are rendered with such care that it tells a story. When you look at another artist’s work, you sense them looking, and then you start looking. Art is just about that circuit, a connection across time.