Portrait of a student 1916

Aleksandr Deyneka sketched this portrait of a student with pencil on paper. The thing about a drawing like this is the way it's searching. You know, the artist is feeling around, trying to find the form. I can imagine Deyneka hunched over, squinting, his hand moving quickly across the page, trying to capture the likeness of this student. What was the artist thinking? Was he remembering his own time as a student? I love how the shading around the hair gives it volume, and the delicate lines defining the nose and mouth. It's almost like the drawing is breathing, alive with the energy of the moment. You can really see the influence of other artists in the early twentieth century who were grappling with similar questions of representation and form. Artists are in an ongoing conversation, responding to each other's work across time. The beauty of drawing is its ability to capture a fleeting moment, an impression, a feeling.