Figuren, een hand en voeten in schoenen 1890 - 1922

Johanna van de Kamer made this sketch of figures, a hand, and feet in shoes, with graphite on paper, at an unknown date. There is something so vulnerable and intimate about sketches of hands and feet; they are often among the first things artists learn to draw, and they become a shorthand for representing the figure and the body. Look at the feet, shod in what look like sturdy boots or shoes. The artist has captured their weight with a series of confident lines. There’s a lot of energy in that small area of the drawing; and a lot of information about the figure, despite how loosely it is rendered. I am reminded of Degas, who also had a particular knack for drawing dancers' feet, not in a sentimental way, but with an unflinching eye for the marks of labor and physical strain. Ultimately, this is what mark-making is all about – a conversation between artists of then and now, here and there, that continues through line and form.