Meisje en vogel c. 1890 - 1930

Totie made this small pen and ink drawing, showing a girl and a bird, on paper sometime in the past. The lines are scratchy, and the colours are pale, like a memory. I love how the marks create a sense of depth with very little tonal variation, it’s as if Totie made the work without any planning or concern for what the finished piece might look like. This kind of approach allows you to be led by your intuition and make surprising discoveries along the way. Look at the line of the girl’s profile, how simply it defines her cheek and brow, then compare it to the more laboured drawing of the foliage. There’s a naivety to the handling of form, like that of Balthus or Paula Modersohn-Becker, but also a sophistication in the overall composition. It shows us how we can find meaning in the simplest of things.