Hovedet af mandsperson 1901

Joakim Skovgaard made this drawing of a man's head in 1901, and it's so simple it's brilliant! It's just pencil and some washes on paper. I can imagine Skovgaard looking intently at his model, trying to understand the structure of the head, and I know that feeling so well. It's like you're trying to figure something out, but you can only do it by drawing it. See how the lines around the face are tentative, searching? Then the way he's used the wash to create these shadows feels so intuitive, like he’s finding the form as he goes. The head is tilted slightly upward, and there's this look in his eyes, a kind of questioning. I wonder what he's thinking? Maybe Skovgaard was trying to capture a moment of introspection, of being human. It reminds me of other artists like Van Gogh, who were also trying to capture the inner life of their subjects. These artists are all in conversation with each other, across time, trying to figure out what it means to be human, one brushstroke, one drawing at a time.