Portret van schrijver Jan Hofker Possibly 1905 - 1909

Willem Witsen made this drawing of the writer Jan Hofker with what looks like charcoal, probably on paper. The beauty of a drawing like this is the directness, the feeling of the hand moving across the page. See how the charcoal is layered, smudged in some areas to create these soft shadows, and then darker, more defined lines to describe the hat or the side of the face? It feels like a real conversation between the artist and the paper, a kind of back-and-forth. I love the way Witsen hasn't tried to hide the process. You can almost see him thinking, correcting, and refining the image as he goes. That little stroke of light that indicates the eye, set against the darkness, it's as if the writer is about to come to life right before us. It reminds me of some of Degas' portrait drawings, especially in its intimacy and that sense of a fleeting moment captured. It's a reminder that art isn't about perfection but about exploring, questioning, and seeing what happens.