Kop van een tijger after 1921

Henri Verstijnen made this drawing of a tiger's head, it seems, with pencil. It’s a tight crop, so we're right up in the tiger's grill, and it's kind of unnerving. Look at how Verstijnen uses all these tiny, tiny strokes to build up the form and texture. The fur looks so soft you could almost reach out and touch it. I love the way he captures the light in the tiger's eyes. The effect of all this tight mark-making is to make something both realistic and very graphic, like a woodcut. Notice the way the lines around the tiger's face almost vibrate, creating this amazing sense of energy. This drawing reminds me of other artists that have found ways of making marks that are both descriptive and abstract, like Kiki Smith. But ultimately, it is the tension between the animal's power and vulnerability that makes this drawing so compelling.