Hoofd van een jongen, in profiel naar rechts 1874 - 1945

Carel Adolph Lion Cachet made this small drawing of a boy's head in profile, using what looks like charcoal or graphite. The marks are tentative, but the gaze of the boy is steady. There’s a softness in the shading that makes me think about the artist gently coaxing the image out of the surface, as if he’s feeling his way through the contours of the boy's face. I wonder what Cachet was thinking about as he drew – was he trying to capture the boy's likeness, or was he more interested in the play of light and shadow on his face? There’s a wonderful economy in the lines. The bare minimum to convey the planes of the face. That ear is so simple but so evocative. And I love how the lines trail off, unfinished, suggesting there's more to the story than what we see. It reminds me of other portrait drawings by artists like Lucian Freud, who also had a knack for capturing the essence of their subjects with just a few deft strokes. Artists are always looking and learning from each other, aren’t they?