Verzameling moderne snelle tekeningen - Zomer 1916 - 1917

This is a page from "Collection of Modern Quick Sketches - Summer" by Ishii Hakutei. Looking at this cover, the artist must have known that the best way to capture a fleeting season isn't to describe it but to evoke it. With its muted palette of gray, green, and pale pink, this work is not shouting, it's whispering. I wonder what Hakutei might have been thinking as he laid down these brushstrokes, each one a little poem. The textures hint at the way light filters through leaves, or maybe it's a metaphor for the ephemeral nature of summer itself? And those characters running down the side, how do they speak to you? For me, the eye meanders in an act of playful discovery. Hakutei is in conversation with other painters across time, inspiring a sense of possibility that feels generous and alive.