Meubilair c. 1905 - 1906

Carel Adolph Lion Cachet made this graphite sketch, “Meubilair”, on paper at an unknown date. It lives now in the Rijksmuseum. Look at the surface of the page, how the barest of marks conjure two chairs and their blocky frames. It’s a study in the process of seeing, or maybe it shows how little information we actually need to construct a picture in our minds. See that one dark patch on the left-hand chair? It's like a little burst of energy, concentrating the form. Then, on the right, the clean continuous line describes the edge of the second chair. Both marks give life to the shapes and hint at the weight of the objects. This drawing reminds me of the work of Giacometti, someone else who felt the need to keep searching for the essence of a form. These artists use drawing as a kind of thinking, a way to explore what it means to represent something in its most essential form. It's not just about what it looks like, but how it feels to see it.