Ornamentaal ontwerp met leeuwen 1874 - 1945

Carel Adolph Lion Cachet made this ornamental design with lions, in pen and grey ink, on grid paper. The process here feels so exposed, doesn't it? You can see the grid beneath, almost like the underpainting, or the scaffolding, for a grander design. It's like the artist is showing us his workings, unafraid of revealing the bones of the piece. Look at the variations in the ink washes, how the tones shift from almost nothing, to dense, pooling blacks. You can see the brushstrokes, tentative and searching, as if the artist is feeling his way through the image, letting it emerge from the page. The lions themselves, with their stylized manes and somewhat goofy expressions, feel more decorative than dangerous, like friendly guardians of some forgotten heraldry. This reminds me a bit of the graphic sensibility you see in some of Hilma af Klint's work. Both artists share an interest in using symbolic forms and underlying structures to access some deeper meaning, an ongoing conversation of ideas across time.