Liggende en buigende figuur 1849 - 1917

This is Matthijs Maris's drawing, 'Liggende en buigende figuur', housed in the Rijksmuseum. The figures are rendered in a delicate, almost ethereal pencil, set against the grid of the paper. The composition is structured by these barely-there figures, creating a sense of lightness and indeterminacy. Maris destabilizes traditional figure drawing. The lines are faint and sketchy, resisting any sense of concrete form. The figures seem to emerge from, and dissolve back into, the ground. This challenges our assumptions about representation, shifting the focus from the solidity of the subject to the process of perception itself. The grid, usually a tool for precision, here becomes a framework for ambiguity, emphasizing the fluid and provisional nature of Maris's artistic process. It functions less as a tool to add meaning to the figures, and more as a conceptual space where form is constantly negotiated and redefined.