Oudere vrouw met een schotel in de hand 1906 - 1945

Reijer Stolk made this sketch of an older woman with a saucer, probably on paper with a pencil. It is a tentative thing, and that's what I like about it. The marks feel like the artist is thinking aloud, searching for the form, and it is as if we are party to a conversation between the eye, the hand, and the paper. Notice how the hat is constructed of many small marks, like tiny stitches or dabs of paint. Each one is a decision, a negotiation between what is seen and what is felt. The additional faint rendering of the woman's head adds to the feeling of this being an exploratory process. It makes me think of other artists who embrace the unfinished, like Giacometti, whose sculptures often seem to be emerging from a cloud of material. Or maybe even Cy Twombly, in the apparent scribbles that capture something essential about form and space. Ultimately, this drawing is less about a fixed image and more about the ongoing act of looking, thinking, and making.