Portret van mr. Samuel van Houten, op hoge leeftijd, driekwart naar links 1872 - 1950

Barbara Elisabeth van Houten made this portrait of Mr. Samuel van Houten at an advanced age with graphite on paper. The hatching in this drawing is just so lovely and casual, it’s like she’s thinking out loud with her pencil! The surface of the paper is left mostly bare. The graphite is applied with varying pressure and direction to create the illusion of light and shadow, volume and texture. Look at the way she renders his face – the lines around the eyes and mouth, they really get at the essence of this person. You can see the history etched into his skin. And the glasses! They're like these big, dark windows, obscuring his gaze, but also adding to the sense of him as a thinker, a scholar. The ear is a delight, look how she has rendered it with such care. You could say it reminds me of some of those great society portraits by Sargent, just without all the fuss. Both show how it is possible to capture something essential about a person with just a few deft strokes. What I love about this drawing is it feels so immediate, so alive. It's like she's saying, "Here's a person, in all their beautiful, flawed humanity." And that’s what art is all about, isn't it?