Knielende man met een pikhouweel 1906 - 1945

Reijer Stolk made this drawing of a kneeling man with a pickaxe with pencil on paper. It’s a sketch, a beginning, and I love seeing that start. The pencil lines have a tentative, searching quality, as if Stolk is feeling his way around the subject. Look at the way he's built up the form of the man, layer upon layer of hatching. It’s not just about describing what he sees, but about the process of seeing, of figuring things out. The lines are dense and almost scribbled in the lower half of the drawing, building up the shadow and weight of the figure, while the shapes in the upper half are more lightly sketched, more ethereal. There’s a real conversation happening between the artist, the subject, and the material. This reminds me of the drawings of Paula Modersohn-Becker, who also used simple lines to capture the essence of everyday life. Art is a conversation, and this piece is a great example of how artists build on each other's ideas across time.