Bloem en een Afrikaanse vrouw die een kruik op het hoofd draagt c. 1916 - 1945

This sketch of a flower and an African woman carrying a jug on her head was made by Reijer Stolk. I wonder when he made this? The flower is like a doily, an explosion of lace, and the woman is a study in posture, her arms raised, holding an invisible weight. The lines are searching, tentative, as if Stolk is feeling his way through the forms, trying to capture something elusive. Maybe he was thinking about colonialism, about the exoticism of other cultures, but also about the everyday realities of people's lives, the weight they carry, both literally and metaphorically. It makes me think about Matisse, about his odalisques, but also about the way he used line to create a sense of movement and energy. All artists are magpies, stealing ideas from each other, building on what came before. And that’s fine with me.