Meisje met een takje in haar hand 1909 - 1911

Jan Mankes made this intimate, small drawing of a girl with a twig sometime in the early 20th century. Look closely: it’s just a few pencil lines on paper, so delicate. I can almost feel Mankes gently coaxing this image out of the nothingness. It feels like he’s barely there, as if not wanting to disturb the quiet he’s found. The girl, holding a tiny twig, becomes a study in hushed observation. What was he thinking, seeing this girl, this moment? Maybe it was a meditation on the fragility of life, or the simple beauty of the everyday. It reminds me how drawings can be like whispers. Mankes is having a quiet conversation with other artists, maybe someone like Agnes Martin, who also knew how to find the monumental in the minimal. The drawing holds space for uncertainty. It invites us to bring our own stories, and our own meanings. It’s less about what we see, and more about how we see.