Les P 1936

Louis Soutter made this drawing, Les P, with pencil on paper. Looking at this frenetic sketch, I can’t help but think about the physical act of drawing itself. The quick, repetitive strokes, like anxious scribbles, suggest a kind of restless energy. The paper is thin, almost translucent, allowing the graphite to bleed into its fibers, giving it a ghostly, ethereal quality. The figures seem to emerge from a hazy atmosphere, their forms dissolving into a network of lines. Notice how the artist uses hatching and cross-hatching to create a sense of depth and volume, but never fully resolves the figures. It’s this ambiguity that makes the drawing so compelling. Soutter reminds me of other artists who pushed the boundaries of representation like Alfred Kubin, embracing the raw, unfiltered expression of the subconscious. His work embraces ambiguity, inviting us to project our own emotions and experiences onto the image.