Mansfiguur 1875 - 1900

This is a pencil drawing by Jan de Waardt. It’s called Mansfiguur, which simply means “Man.” The artist has used the pencil to create tone through hatching, with the thickness and direction of the marks delineating the forms of the man’s clothes and body. The texture of the paper shines through, creating areas of light that offset the darker strokes of the pencil. The man seems unassuming, and the loose handling of the medium suggests the artist made the drawing rapidly. De Waardt had only a short career, cut short by his early death. During his lifetime, there was an increasing interest in working-class figures and a desire to depict them sympathetically, without sentimentality. In this context, the artist's choice of such humble materials— pencil and paper— may be seen as democratic, a deliberate move away from elitist associations of fine art. It reminds us that art making is at heart a process rooted in social life, in a world of labour, politics, and consumption.