Onvoltooid zelfportret en face: B-1-1, 10 februari Possibly 1942

Cor van Teeseling made this self-portrait on February 10th, likely using graphite or a similar soft pencil on paper. It’s pale, like a ghost of an image, barely there, yet that makes it so intimate. You can see the searching lines, the way the artist is feeling out his own form. He’s building himself, bit by bit, with each tentative stroke. I bet he kept stopping, squinting, stepping back, and then leaning in real close again. Look how the lines around the eyes are a little darker, a little more defined. That's where the focus is, where he’s really trying to capture something. You know, it reminds me of Giacometti, always trying to grasp the essence of a person, never quite satisfied, and maybe that's the point. It’s not about perfection; it’s about the searching. It's like he's saying, "Here I am, in progress, incomplete, but trying." And isn't that what we all are, really? Artists are always in conversation with each other and with themselves. And maybe, with us too.