Wilhelm von Gloeden

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Young Girl, after Von Gloeden – 18-04-26’ is an unexpected side-trip from my regular work. A realistic portrait for a change. My colleague Maria Stella Gracia is the reason for this. Let me explain. Yesterday, she gave me this book she found in a bookshop. The title was ‘Amore e Arte’ by Nino Malambri, celebrating the work of German photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden. She thought of me because of my model sketching. Perhaps I could use it for my classes or even use it for one of my own works. Of course I thanked her for this surprise gift and promised to take a shot at it.

Quicker than Expected

That shot came quicker than expected. This morning I worked on my quarterly V.A.T. return, almost finished. Since I had some time left before art class, waiting for my students I browsed through that book. Suddenly one portrait of a young girl stood out. Why not do a quick sketch killing time? She had this great piercing eyes that seemed to stare in the distance with a dreamy gaze. No particular drawing in progress and my In Hoc Signo project is still on the easle. So I dediced to pick out this one.

Sketching Came Easy

Sketching came easy. In fact, very easy and in three quarters of an hour it was finished. The goal was to finish it within the hour anyway. Two reasons. The first, students were to arrive and I wanted to practise for the afternoon model sketching sessions. We hold two of these sessions, one hour each. See what I could accomplish without taking measurements. Sometimes I provoke myself to make mistakes, just by starting sketching. Especially bothersome when you do portraits because they have to be precise proportionally. Surprisingly, the likeness was not too bad, even strikingly similar.

Shrouded in Mystery

Later this day I try to retrieve some information about the girl. It seems the girl on page 112 of that book (from 1999) cannot be found on the internet. For that matter an AI bot suggested me it could even be a boy. Given the fact Von Gloeden’s depictions of androgyne types this might be so. Well, that’s not very interesting but this young child’s identity shrouded in mystery, is. There it is, a photo taken at the turn of the 19^th century, older than my long deceased grandmothers. She (or he) is eternalized for the second time now. Do you know who she is?

Graphite pencil (Faber Castell Pitt Graphite Matt pencil 14B) drawing on Daler Rowney Smooth Heavyweight paper (14.8 x 21 cm – A5 format)

Artist: Corné Akkers

Sales info: info@corneakkers.com

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