Karikatuur van een staande man met stok 1906 - 1907

This is Willem Witsen’s ‘Karikatuur van een staande man met stok’ from around 1880, created using graphite on paper. The sketch presents a figure, seemingly suspended in a void. The composition emphasizes line and form over substance, and has a directness and a sense of incompleteness. The sketch presents a caricature in its purest form. Witsen uses line to both define and destabilize the figure, capturing a sense of movement, and psychological state. The figure's exaggerated features and the sketch's unfinished quality challenge classical ideals of portraiture, engaging with emerging modernist ideas about representation and subjectivity. The lack of background focuses attention on the figure itself, and the relationship between the man and his cane which is a symbol of authority and support. As a study in form and line, the drawing reflects broader artistic concerns with the fragmentation of identity in the modern era.