Figuurstudie 1906

Reijer Stolk made this study of a figure with pencil on paper, but when it was, we don't know. Just look at the raw energy of those marks. It’s kind of like watching the artist think—a flurry of possibilities emerging, being laid down, rubbed out, revised. I can almost feel him grappling with the form, trying to pin down the elusive essence of the figure. You get the sense that he really put his shoulder into it! The texture alone is so expressive. The pressure, the rhythm, the angles...they all suggest something about the artist's state of mind, his struggle to reconcile what he sees with what he feels. As an artist myself, I often find myself in similar situations. It’s interesting to imagine what he was thinking while creating this drawing. Did he listen to music, was he alone, or did he have company? So many questions, and that's what is so beautiful about art - it opens a space of imagination.