Fock en De Graaff in een krans 1921 - 1926

Patricq Kroon made this drawing of Fock en De Graaff with, I imagine, some sort of pen, and a whole lotta ink. Look how the scene emerges from the scratchy lines: three figures are defined by these raw, almost frantic marks. You can sense the artist wrestling with this, trying to capture not just a likeness, but an attitude. What might Kroon have been thinking? Perhaps he was envisioning a bigger painting, one where the personalities of his subjects could really shine through. These lines are the bones of something larger, they have this raw quality, like sketches dug straight from the subconscious! The crown of palm leaves is particularly wonderful. It’s so dense and scribbled, so alive, it feels like a conversation. Artists are always speaking to each other, even across time, borrowing and riffing on each other’s ideas. It’s like we’re all in this big, messy, beautiful painting together, you know?