Zelfportret: B-1-1, 27 februari Possibly 1942

Cor van Teeseling drew this self-portrait in pencil on paper, sometime before 1942. Look at how he builds up tone with all those tiny hatched lines. It's a real process, a labor of love, and each mark is evidence of his hand at work. Up close, the surface is a sea of gray marks, some darker, some lighter, that create a kind of shimmering effect. See the way the light catches the cheekbone, then fades into the shadow under the jaw? It's all done with the pressure of the pencil, the way he layers those marks. And the hair! It’s like a dark cloud, full of energy and movement. I love how he captures his own gaze – it’s direct, honest, maybe a little bit melancholic. This drawing reminds me of the early self-portraits of Lucian Freud, in the way that he tries to capture a likeness through observation. But it's also a very modern kind of self-reflection, a search for identity through the act of making. Art is never finished, only abandoned.