Zittende figuur 1878 - 1938

This drawing of a seated figure was made by Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst, with what looks like a graphite pencil on paper. It's all about the line here, right? Those tentative, searching marks, as if he's feeling his way around the form, deciding what to keep and what to leave out. It's like watching the thinking process happen right on the page, which is what I love about sketches. Look at the way he’s rendered the hands. They're kind of a jumble of lines, not perfectly defined, but they give you this sense of weight and presence. The marks have a scratchiness to them; the lines are not clean and deliberate but ragged and a little clumsy. The way the lines suggest the fall of light and shadow on the figure's clothing, it reminds me a bit of Käthe Kollwitz, who also used line in a really expressive way. Ultimately, this drawing is about seeing the potential in imperfection, the beauty in the unresolved.