Valmue 1911

This is J.A. Jerichau’s drawing of a poppy, made sometime between 1890 and 1916, the years of his short life. It’s a tender depiction, a soft bloom emerging through layers of graphite. Look at how Jerichau uses hatching to define the shape, those delicate, repetitive strokes building up the forms. There’s a real confidence to this drawing, a commitment to the process of mark making. It’s not about perfection, it’s about the act of seeing and translating. I love how the starkness of the black pencil against the paper lends a sense of melancholy to the image. Notice how, toward the base of the flower, the lines become more concentrated, denser. The poppy almost appears to be folding in on itself, creating a sense of depth and volume. It reminds me of the drawings of Marsden Hartley, and the way he used simple lines to capture the essence of a thing. It is in this ambiguity and open-endedness that art thrives.