Snuit en een staande figuur 1889 - 1894

Antoon Derkinderen made this drawing, “Snuit en een staande figuur,” with graphite on paper. Looking closely, you can see the faint lines that make up the snout, and then the rectangular form of the standing figure. Graphite, the material of pencils, is fascinating because it’s so ubiquitous. We use it every day, mostly without thinking. But in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Derkinderen was working, drawing was absolutely fundamental to artistic practice, and it was also the basis for all sorts of industrial applications – designs for machines, buildings, and so on. The pencil was the technology for visualizing things. It's interesting to consider how the easy availability of a simple material like graphite—and the skill required to use it—played a central role in both artistic creativity and the rise of industrial capitalism. This drawing quietly embodies that intersection.