Character studies – Herman Moerkerk, c. 1925–1935

HERMAN MOERKERK CHARACTER STUDIES

Study sheet with nine character heads, black chalk on paper by Herman Moerkerk, ca. 1925–1935. Signed lower left “Herman Moerkerk”. Size: 22.3 × 14.3 cm.

On this lively study sheet, Herman Moerkerk brought together nine individual studies of heads and profiles. Men and women of different ages are captured with varying degrees of finish: sometimes with only a few lines defining the nose, mouth and chin, elsewhere with strong passages of black chalk in the hair, hats and clothing.

The variety of headwear almost plays a leading role. We see men wearing a cap and a felt hat, alongside several women in fashionable hats, ranging from a broad hat worn at an angle to the close-fitting cloche so characteristic of the 1920s and early 1930s. The figures appear to have been drawn directly from life: fleeting observations of people who caught Moerkerk’s attention, perhaps in the street, in a café, at a gathering or while travelling.

The sheet occupies the boundary between portraiture and the study of character types. Moerkerk was not aiming at fully developed portraits, but at the single feature that makes a face instantly recognisable: a prominent nose, a projecting chin, a glance from beneath the brim of a hat, or the particular angle of a head.

It was precisely this quick and perceptive observation that was one of Moerkerk’s greatest strengths. He became known for his caricatures and drawings of distinctive figures and character types; contemporaries already remarked upon his swiftly drawn studies of individual ‘types’. Herman Moerkerk (1879–1949) lived and worked in ’s-Hertogenbosch for many years before moving to Haarlem in 1928, where he worked as an illustrator for the magazine Katholieke Illustratie.

Price: 475,-