Kop van een Hollandse ooievaar 1876 - 1951

Theo Nieuwenhuis drew this Head of a Dutch Stork with graphite on paper; a study, maybe, or a quick impression. You know, looking at this, it feels like a beginning. I love how immediate the marks are, how the stork's eye is just a solid black dot, and the beak is hatched with such certainty, but also with these kind of scribbled notes on it. It’s like the artist is thinking aloud on the page, trying to understand the essence of the bird’s form with each stroke. The paper itself has this beautiful, aged quality, with these little yellow spots that give it a sense of history. There’s a casualness here that reminds me of Matisse’s line drawings – that same effort to capture the spirit of a thing with the fewest possible marks. Ultimately, it is less about the finished product and more about the ongoing conversation between the artist, the subject, and the medium.