Vier staande heiligen before 1917

Matthijs Maris drew these four standing saints on paper, and what strikes me is the sketchiness of the lines. It's like he's thinking out loud with his pencil, letting the forms emerge tentatively. Look at the way the lines around the figures’ robes are so light, almost hesitant, but then the faces have this definite quality. The texture of the paper shows through, adding to the overall softness. It’s like a memory, or a dream, not quite fully formed. I find that tentativeness really beautiful. It makes me think about the process of drawing as a search, a way of feeling one’s way through an idea rather than a declaration of something fixed. This reminds me of Whistler and his atmospheric studies, it's like art is an ongoing conversation, where artists borrow, riff, and respond to each other across time. And, like any good conversation, it's more about the questions than the answers.