Rembrandt, An Asian elephant

The enquiring line of this drawing immediately conveys the elephant’s primary characteristics: its size, shape, and volume; the wrinkled, baggy texture of its skin; the articulation of its trunk; and its gentleness in the presence of humans, who are briefly indicated with a few strokes, perhaps to give an indication of scale. Despite its apparent spontaneity, an enormous amount of control was necessary to produce this kind of energetic yet assured line.