Staande man met een bolhoed bij een muur 1890 - 1922

Here is a graphite drawing of a figure with a bowler hat by Johanna van de Kamer. See how she renders the man in a somewhat awkward, ungainly pose. I wonder what she was thinking as she made it, perhaps she observed somebody on the street and rapidly sketched them. Notice the marks around the figure; they are light and confident. I wonder what it felt like to create this drawing. I can imagine her hand moving swiftly across the page, capturing the essence of the man before he disappeared from view. It’s almost like a dance between the eye, the hand, and the paper. The way Johanna chose to depict him, with his hat and slumped against the wall, makes me think of other artists who captured fleeting moments of ordinary life. Think of the way Degas or Toulouse-Lautrec depicted their subjects, capturing their humanity with an understated touch.