Refat Pacha en John Bull aan de Bosporus 1915 - 1925

Patricq Kroon made this cartoon with pencil and ink sometime around the turn of the century, maybe as a study for a larger work, or perhaps it was an end in itself. The pencil shading creates volume in the landmasses and in John Bull's enormous head, while the dark ink brings out the cartoonish qualities in the characters: Refat Pacha looks like he is tap-dancing across the Bosphorus with a massive curved sword. You can imagine Kroon's hand as he drew this, quickly filling in areas with diagonal lines and confidently drawing the contours of the figures. I can feel the pressure he applied to the paper as he brought this work into being. It makes me think about the conversations that artists have across time, borrowing and stealing images and ideas from one another. Art doesn’t appear in a vacuum; it always comes from somewhere, and goes somewhere else.