Liggende figuur en een kind in zwemkleding c. 1930 - 1940

Otto Verhagen made this sketchbook page, entitled "Liggende figuur en een kind in zwemkleding", using what looks like pencil, and the process is laid bare for us. There's a kind of quiet intimacy to this work; seeing these figures in the midst of being sketched, there's a real sense of observation and recording of the world. Verhagen's mark-making is direct, even childlike, with a raw quality that's very affecting. The lines are tentative in places, which makes you feel like you're seeing the artist thinking and feeling his way across the page. Consider the face at the bottom right corner, it is constructed from just a few lines, and the way the lines are laid down shows the searching, curious eye of the artist. There's something very modern about this directness, this openness to the act of artmaking. It reminds me of the pared-down, honest work of Elizabeth Peyton. I think it's great.