Portret van Louis Gaspard Adrien van Limburg Stirum 1843 - 1963

This is Johan Hendrik Hoffmeister’s, Portret van Louis Gaspard Adrien van Limburg Stirum, and it was made with graphite. Look at the way the values operate; the range between dark and light is so subtle. It’s like a whisper of tone. In artmaking, that whisper can be just as powerful as a shout. The softness of the graphite lends itself to this quietude. Notice, too, the texture of the paper. It’s not perfectly smooth; there’s a bit of tooth there, and the graphite catches on that tooth, creating a slightly broken, almost atmospheric effect. It's the kind of drawing that suggests that even in the most traditional of forms, like portraiture, there's always room for experimentation and happy accidents. It reminds me a little of Odilon Redon, who embraced the accidental in his work, and discovered new ways of seeing. It shows that art is an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time.