Twee meisjes bij een voordeur 1916

Nelly Spoor made this drawing of two girls by a front door with ink on paper, and I think it's lovely. There’s such a tactile quality to her marks that draws me into the picture. The hatching and cross-hatching she uses to build up tone and shadow is incredibly fine, it’s almost like she's knitting with her pen. This kind of process reminds us that art is something that emerges gradually, built up from small gestures. Look at the girl in the foreground, the texture of her hair is made up of these tiny, energetic marks, a real sense of volume and movement. The details that I pick out pull me into the piece, the slight tilt of the door, the detail in the bricks and plants. Spoor’s work reminds me of that of Aubrey Beardsley, particularly in her ability to create such a rich visual world with such simple means. The piece really celebrates the power of suggestion and open-endedness. It's an invitation, rather than a statement.