Bukkende vrouw c. 1920

This sketch of a bending woman, by Johan Antonie de Jonge, seems to emerge right from the paper. The marks aren’t so much descriptive as they are about a feeling, a searching for the right line that captures the essence of movement. There’s a kind of vulnerability in the lightness of the drawing, like the artist is thinking out loud. Look at the way the lines build up, especially around the hands and the fabric of the dress. You can almost feel the pressure of the pencil, the way the artist is coaxing the image into being. It's about process, about discovering the form through the act of drawing itself. It reminds me a little of some of Philip Guston’s more pared-down drawings, where the line is everything and the image is almost secondary to the gesture. Both seem to suggest that art doesn’t have to be polished or perfect; sometimes, the most powerful stuff is the stuff that’s still in the process of becoming.