Portrait 1985

Here is a drawing by Morteza Katouzian, done with charcoal. I love the soft, smudgy edges of this portrait, it gives her a kind of ethereal glow, as though she's emerging from the paper itself. Katouzian is so careful with tone, modulating light and shadow. You can almost feel the give and take of the charcoal as he coaxes the form from the page. It's as if he's discovering her, line by line, shadow by shadow. I wonder, as he worked on this piece, if he was thinking about those masters of the Renaissance, or maybe even some of the great portraitists of the 18th century. There’s something timeless about the way he captures the quiet dignity of the sitter, a kind of homage to the history of portraiture, while still very much his own. I mean, every mark here feels so deliberate, yet so free. It’s like he’s having a conversation with the past.