Pijprokende man op stoel 1907

A. Gilius's etching of a pipe-smoking man in a chair presents us with a figure rendered in a delicate dance of lines. It’s all about process here, as if Gilius is thinking out loud with each etched stroke. The texture is subtle, almost whispering. Look closely at the man's coat. Notice how the lines vary in thickness, creating shadows and folds with real depth. There’s something incredibly tactile about the way the ink sits on the page; you can almost feel the texture of the paper. The chair seems to fade into the background, making the man even more present. Think of someone like Philip Guston and his late-period lithographs, where simple marks convey complex emotions. Like Guston, Gilius embraces the immediacy of the medium, reminding us that art is an ongoing conversation across time. It's a piece that understands that true art is about embracing ambiguity and multiple readings.