Zebu c. 1866 - 1939

Bernard Willem Wierink made this drawing of a Zebu, a type of cow, with chalk on paper. What strikes me about this drawing is the way Wierink uses the toned paper. The paper is a sort of neutral brown-grey and he's used white chalk to pull the image out of the background. It is like he’s reverse-drawing, adding light, not shadow. I find it playful, the way the soft chalk makes the animal almost glow, the lines softly smudged at the edges. I wonder if he rubbed it with his fingers? Look closely at the eye, the way a few quick marks give the animal expression. The ear is also beautifully done. Wierink is not trying to give us a scientific diagram, but a felt experience, a moment in time. It reminds me of drawings by Van Gogh, that same sense of immediacy and care. Ultimately, art is just a conversation, artists speaking to each other across time.