Koppen van giraffen c. 1930

Carel Adolph Lion Cachet made these giraffe heads with ink on paper; you can see it in the Rijksmuseum. I love how the artist seems to be thinking through the shapes, almost feeling his way through these giraffe heads. You can see he’s really trying to get to grips with the form, using the line to give a sense of the animal's volume. The texture of the paper comes through; it’s not overworked or fussy. Look at the lines around the head on the bottom right; they’re so tentative and searching. The eye is just a quick dab of ink, and the ears are like little question marks. But somehow, it all adds up to a recognizable giraffe. It reminds me of the drawings of Picasso; both artists use a kind of shorthand to capture the essence of their subjects. It feels like he’s in conversation with the animal. Art’s like that, a never-ending conversation across time and space.