Studie van een zeeman met een anker 1868 - 1928

Jan Toorop made this study of a seaman with an anchor with graphite, colored chalk and brush on paper. Toorop here is using the simplest of means. But this belies the subject of the drawing, which gives us a glimpse into the backbreaking labor that was the reality for so many working people at the time. We see the man bent over, hauling the anchor, the very image of physical exertion. The roughly sketched lines and smudges of chalk only intensify the sense of the man's effort. This piece, as a study, also invites us to consider the labor of the artist. Toorop's marks are economical but capture the essence of his subject. The drawing bears witness to Toorop's own intense looking, and the skill required to distill a complex scene into a few deft strokes. It suggests a deep respect for the working man, and for the kind of manual dexterity that both the seaman and the artist possess.