Portret van Toeloes Possibly 1921

This is Jan Veth’s ‘Portret van Toeloes’, made in 1921. Here, Veth teases out a sensitive likeness with coloured pencils: layers of graphite, grey, and a hint of green modelling the sitter’s face. He tilts his head slightly, and we can see his gaze is fixed, thoughtful and observant. I imagine the artist in front of his subject, their shared concentration. It feels like a slow process, an accumulation of marks gradually building form and presence. You know, it’s easy to forget how radical drawing actually is: the capacity to make a likeness out of almost nothing, and to communicate something of the sitter’s interiority. It’s also interesting to consider how this drawing emerges out of a longer tradition of portraiture. It reminds me a little of Holbein with its precision and attention to detail, but somehow Veth brings a modern sensibility to it. Artists are always talking to one another across time, borrowing, stealing, and transforming.