Zittende naakte vrouw 1939

Chris van der Hoef made this drawing of a seated nude woman, sometime in the early twentieth century, using delicate strokes of graphite or charcoal on paper. Look at the subtle gradations of tone, how he coaxes form from the ground! You can feel his hand moving across the paper, searching for the right line, the perfect shadow. I bet he was thinking hard about the weight of the body, how it rests on the surface beneath. There's a real sense of intimacy, as if we're peering into the artist's studio, witnessing a private moment of observation. The drawing reminds me of other artists, like Käthe Kollwitz, who captured the human form with such sensitivity and grace. It’s like artists are all in dialogue, riffing off each other, borrowing and transforming ideas across time. I feel it too when I’m painting; all of art history is right there on the canvas with me! It's all part of a messy, ongoing conversation that has no beginning and no end.