Vrouwenhoofd 1925

This is Otto Verhagen’s “Vrouwenhoofd”, likely made with graphite or a similar material. Looking at the page, I imagine the artist feeling around for the face, tentatively sketching the contours of the woman’s face. The delicate, almost hesitant lines are quite revealing, aren’t they? You can see where he has worked to construct the image, erasing and redrawing the face. Perhaps he stepped away from the work and, upon returning, redrew the nose, feeling it was slightly out of kilter. It reminds me of the drawings of Odilon Redon; the pale, almost ghostlike, subject matter. I wonder if Verhagen was looking at Redon when making this artwork? I think artists are in an ongoing conversation, exchanging ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. This work embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed or definitive readings.