Don Quijote 1944

Cyprián Majerník made this drawing of Don Quijote in an unknown year using brown ink. The lean figure of Don Quijote sits tall upon his even leaner steed, the lines rapidly sketched as if Majerník was furiously trying to capture the essence of this famous figure. It's all about capturing a feeling of a character, not the physical appearance, right? I can imagine Majerník, perhaps in a small room, hunched over paper, completely absorbed in the world of Cervantes, thinking about how to represent idealism, folly, and the human spirit. The brown ink is so simple, but the range of marks speaks volumes. There's a kind of desperate energy in the marks, especially the flurry of lines in the sky and foreground. In his own way, Majerník rides alongside Don Quijote, tilting at windmills of his own. You can see echoes of Daumier and Picasso in the raw, expressive lines. Artists borrow from each other, riff on themes—it's a long conversation.