Vrouwenkop met half gesloten ogen in profiel naar links Possibly 1943

This is Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita's drawing of a woman, made with ink on paper, but we don't know exactly when. It's all in line, and what a line! It's like he's feeling out the form, letting the pen dance across the page, trying to find the essence of her. I wonder what he was thinking, this Mesquita, as he drew? Did he know her? Was she a lover, a friend, a stranger glimpsed on the street? The woman's eyes are half-closed, like she's drifting off, dreaming maybe. Look at the way he's rendered her hair, a mass of swirls and curls, so full of energy! And the sharp angular lines he uses to define her features. The surface is almost vibrating, but the woman is still. It's a beautiful tension. You know, this drawing reminds me that art is all about conversation, about artists responding to each other across time. I feel like I’m speaking to Mesquita across time. It's like we're all just trying to make sense of the world, one line, one brushstroke, one drawing at a time.