Bovenbeen en een rug in profiel 1906

Reijer Stolk made this drawing of a thigh and back in profile with graphite on paper. You know, there's something so direct and vulnerable about drawings; like seeing an artist think! Here, the quick, repeated marks create a sense of volume, but also of searching, of a hand trying to grasp the form. The hatching is so clear and honest, you can almost feel the pressure of the pencil on the page. And that single, confident line that defines the back, it's like the artist found the essence of the figure in one go. Stolk seems to be working in a tradition of academic life drawing, but there's also an urgency and modernism in the sketchiness of the line that reminds me of Schiele or Klimt. It's a reminder that art is a conversation across time.