Twee mannen met een hoofddeksel c. 1936 - 1940

Here we have Henk Henriët's drawing of two men with head coverings, made with pencil on paper. The artist is working quickly, right? I can see the lines testing, feeling out the forms, building them up in layers. It's like he’s thinking through drawing. Look how the lines cross over each other, not really defining an edge, but more like suggesting the roundness of a shoulder, the curve of a hat. I imagine Henriët, maybe in a café, quickly sketching these figures, trying to catch their essence before they move. You can see the ghost of another figure behind, like he’s searching for the right one. What were these men talking about? What was Henk thinking? Was he interested in their clothes, their expressions? It reminds me of other artists like Van Gogh, always drawing the people around him, trying to understand them, understand himself, through the act of seeing and recording. It is a form of expression which embraces ambiguity. The process of making it is as important as the final image.