Chaim Knorringa 1936

Henk Henriët made this charcoal drawing of Chaim Knorringa in 1936. It's all soft grey marks, smudged and layered to build up this person's likeness. I wonder what Henriët was thinking about as he worked, building up the tones, the darks around the eyes especially. Making a portrait is strange, isn’t it? You’re trying to capture something of someone else, translate them through your hand, through this medium of charcoal on paper. The softness of the marks gives a real vulnerability to the piece. It reminds me of the work of other portraitists like Alice Neel, trying to catch a sense of something beyond just physical appearance. The way the marks feel tentative, searching, means it’s not about getting it 'right' in a photographic way. Instead, it becomes about an encounter, a record of a moment of seeing and feeling. All of us artists are in conversation, all the time.