Slapende reus met zijn hoofd op zijn rechterhand leunend c. 1936 - 1940

Henk Henriët made this drawing of a sleeping giant with his head resting on his right hand. It's just pencil on paper, a simple medium, but look at the way Henriët uses it. He's not trying to trick us into thinking this is real, he's embracing the act of drawing. The lines are tentative, searching. You can almost see the artist thinking, rethinking, as he goes. The giant's form emerges from a web of marks, a process of building up and refining. It’s like he’s trying to catch a fleeting thought, pinning it down with these delicate lines. Look at the way the lines around the head, see how they cluster and darken, suggesting weight and form, but also a sense of dreaminess. You can imagine the giant lost in his own world, oblivious to everything around him. Henriët, like Guston, invites us to see the world not as a fixed reality, but as something fluid and open to interpretation.