Vrouw en een antropomorf figuur naast een slapende kale man Possibly 1943

Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita drew this image of a woman, an anthropomorphic figure, and a sleeping bald man, with pen and ink. It's all about the line here, a simple, economic line used to render a complex, dream-like scene. What I find arresting about this image is how the stark quality of the lines contrasts with the enigmatic quality of the scene, with the somewhat cartoonish figures giving it an almost comic feel. It's like a storyboard, or a snapshot of a bizarre play. Look closely at the sleeping bald man, the lines create a sense of depth and volume, particularly around his face, while the lines delineating his body are flatter. It makes you wonder about the artist's process, which elements came first and which were afterthoughts. Mesquita had a great influence on the young Escher. You can almost see the seeds of Escher's surreal spatial trickery in this playful image. What is a piece of art if not a conversation between artists, across time and space?