Studie van handen en een leeuwin (?) before 1917

Matthijs Maris made this study of hands and a lioness, or maybe, probably, a lioness, on paper with pencil. There’s a dreaminess to it, as if the pencil was barely making contact, or as if he was drawing these forms from memory. It’s less about the specifics of hands and lions, and more about this state of mind that Maris was in while he was drawing. Look at how light the marks are, floating on the page. There's the faintest hint of the lioness in the bottom right, and a disembodied hand hovering above. I see a kind of openness in this drawing, a real sense of searching. It reminds me of some of Philip Guston’s later works, or maybe even Cy Twombly’s sketches. You know, the kind of art that makes you feel like you're eavesdropping on the artist's thoughts, where the final image is less important than the act of looking and wondering. Art isn’t about fixed meanings. It’s about the ongoing conversation, the questions we ask, and the way we keep each other company in the act of seeing.