Stadsgezicht c. 1915 - 1920

Willem Witsen made this graphite sketch, called “Cityscape”, sometime between 1880 and 1923, and you can find it at the Rijksmuseum. The artist’s hand moves across the paper, translating what he sees into marks. There's this dense, almost frenetic hatching, building up to create a strong sense of light and shadow, then the horizon and the water... just a few lines. I imagine Witsen standing there, perhaps on a cold day, quickly trying to capture the essence of the scene before him. How the pencil felt in his hand, the resistance of the paper, the way the light shifted, all influencing the final image. He must have decided to simplify forms, reduce the world to its barest elements. It is easy to forget, with all the art being made right now, that artists are always in conversation with those who came before and those who will come after. We are all influencing and inspiring one another, building upon a collective understanding of seeing and being. Painting, like any art form, embraces uncertainty, offering endless possibilities for interpretation and meaning.