Portrait of Poincaré listening to a speech 1929

Émile Friant made this drawing of Poincaré listening to a speech with what looks like a fine nib pen, mapping out the composition with lines that seem to relish a kind of open-endedness. I love the way the sketch suggests a process, not a finished product. The texture of the paper peeks through, becoming a kind of atmosphere, and Friant uses the bare minimum of marks to convey the form. Look closely at the face: those tiny, dark lines that carve out the features are so economical! They are not trying to be realistic, exactly, but they capture something essential about the way light and shadow play on a face. The hands are gently clasped around his hat, as if deep in thought. The drawing has something of the quality of a Manet sketch, though perhaps more academic. Both of them understood that art is about more than just replicating what we see, it's about creating a new way of seeing, a new way of thinking. And that's something to listen to.