Slapend kind 1913 - 1945

Henk Henriët made this drawing of a sleeping child in pencil on paper. Look at the way Henriët approaches mark-making: with such lightness and delicacy. You can really see the process in the finished piece. The material aspect of this work is all about the subtle variations in the pencil’s pressure, creating a range of tonal values. The lines are thin and somewhat transparent, and Henriët doesn’t conceal the process at all. I like how the hand is drawn, the slightly clenched fist by the child's face, and the loose, open strokes that make up the head. It reminds me a little of Paula Rego’s drawings, that same interest in the vulnerable and intimate aspects of human experience. Ultimately, it's this embrace of ambiguity that makes art so compelling: it invites us to linger, to question, and to discover new meanings within ourselves.