Untitled (Portrait of the art historian Dr. Annaliese Mayer-Meintschel) c. 1960

This is an untitled portrait of the art historian Dr. Annaliese Mayer-Meintschel, drawn by Ernst Hassebrauk with pencil on paper. Looking at it, I'm struck by how Hassebrauk lets us see the process. It's all there on the surface, the searching lines, the corrections, the way the shading builds up. It’s honest! The texture of the paper peeks through, giving a lightness to the image. Notice how the lines around her shoulder seem to extend beyond her, like an aura or an echo. It reminds me of the way we hold onto impressions of people, never quite fixed. The piece has the feeling of someone working something out, it's not about perfection but about an intimate conversation between the artist and their subject. For me, this piece evokes the drawings of Lucian Freud, where the intensity of observation becomes a kind of raw, emotional map. Art at its best is this ongoing dialogue, a messy, beautiful, and human endeavor.