Portret van Stefan George en Albert Verwey 1902

Jan Toorop made this drawing of Stefan George and Albert Verwey with graphite and possibly some other media on tin. Look how the heads of these two men overlap, one slightly fading into the other as if they were ghostly figures. I can just imagine Toorop circling these heads again and again, searching for their forms, letting it emerge and disappear as the image slowly comes into being. There is a constant exchange of ideas going on in the studio when you’re making a painting. It's like you’re in conversation with all the artists who came before you, like Van Gogh, like Picasso, like Guston. The physicality of the graphite on the tin, the thin lines, and hazy background give the artwork an ethereal, almost dreamlike quality. The conversation never ends, but the painting does eventually. It takes on a life of its own, separate from its maker, and continues to evolve in the eyes of each new viewer.