Benen van een meisje 1899 - 1920

Jan Mankes made this delicate pencil drawing, *Benen van een meisje*, likely around the time he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which he died from at just 30 years old. Look at the slightness of the marks, the almost tentative quality. You can imagine him gently coaxing these legs into being, with a soft pencil and barely-there pressure. There’s something so tender and vulnerable in the way he captures the girl's legs in three different positions, as if he's trying to grasp something fleeting or ephemeral. I wonder if he felt the same way about his own body as his illness progressed. In this drawing I see a quiet exploration of form and a gentle touch that speaks to the fragility of life and the body. It is reminiscent of other early 20th century artists, who were trying to grasp an essential reality, by stripping down the representation of form. This drawing makes me want to slow down.