Mannenkop Possibly 1943

Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita made this drawing, Mannenkop, with pen and ink on paper. The lines are so carefully, almost meditatively placed. See how the face is built up of continuous looping marks, like a landscape made of skin? The ink is quite uniform in tone. This is a drawing that seems to want to record a process of thinking, not just the finished image, but the thinking through it. I can see a clear linear quality that reminds me of the later work of Phillip Guston. Like Guston's drawings, the simplicity of materials underscores the power of line to capture and hold an emotional state. The surface of the paper is exposed, lending a sense of lightness, airiness, even as the subject matter feels weighty, introspective. The little hatched marks he uses to indicate the pupils of the eyes are particularly affecting, giving the face a piercing, knowing quality. This is a face that has seen things, you know? Like any drawing, the beauty of it lies in what it reveals, but also what it obscures.