Polonaise before 1952

Johan van Hell made this drawing of a band, sometime in the first half of the 20th century, we don’t know exactly when. It's the kind of drawing that makes you want to lean in close, you know? Look at the way he builds up the forms with all those tiny, scratchy lines. It's like he's not just describing the band, he's building them, bit by bit, one tiny mark at a time. There’s a real labour and joy to that. The whole thing is a study in textures. The way the light catches on the brass instruments, the rough fabric of the musician's coats. Check out the bass drum, especially – see how he suggests the sheen of the drum skin with those subtle gradations of tone? I feel like you could almost reach out and touch it. You can almost hear the band, like a memory. Van Hell reminds me a bit of George Grosz. Both were interested in capturing the energy of city life, but Van Hell does it with a kind of understated tenderness. It's a drawing that rewards close looking, and it's full of surprises.