Portret van Kees Cath 1976

Rein Dool made this portrait of Kees Cath in 1995, probably using graphite or charcoal on paper. I can imagine him, working and reworking the lines, building up the image from a cloud of marks. It's funny how Dool captures a certain type of intellectual here, the kind of guy who smokes a pipe and looks off into the distance, deep in thought. You know the type? There's a real tenderness in the way the artist renders the sitter, even though it’s just a few lines and smudges. I wonder, what was on Kees Cath's mind when Dool was drawing him? Maybe he was contemplating some grand idea, or maybe he was just wondering what to have for dinner. Painters are always in conversation with each other, even across time. Dool’s portrait reminds me of other portraitists—a little bit of Freud, a touch of Hockney, but with its own unique voice. And that's what art is all about, right? Taking what came before and making something new, something that speaks to our own time and our own experiences.