Foto uit archief Philip Zilcken after 1914

This drawing of an unknown soldier, of an unknown date, is like a ghost of the past rendered in pencil. It’s so delicate, like a whisper on paper. I wonder about the artist, hunched over this page, sketching with quiet intensity, almost like they are conjuring this soldier's spirit. There's something haunting about those light strokes, especially around the eyes and mouth. You know? The artist captures something real, something not quite visible. The skull and crossbones on his hat give a sense of the melancholy of the subject. He feels like he has seen too much. It reminds me of other works on paper, like those by Alfred Kubin, where the lines vibrate with a sense of the uncanny. I feel like this is an ongoing conversation throughout time, inspiring creativity and making us look deeper. There’s so much ambiguity in the marks on the page, so much room for interpretation – and that’s where the magic happens, right?