Sinterklaas met twee pieten op een dak 1878 - 1943

Willem van Konijnenburg made this drawing, Sinterklaas met twee pieten op een dak, with graphite on paper. It is all lines, soft and muted, a real sketch. I feel like I’m seeing the artist thinking, as he’s working! The image of Sinterklaas is emerging right before us, the drawing is kind of all over the place, like a map of the imagination. What was Van Konijnenburg thinking when he made it? It’s as though he’s wrestling with the subject matter, Sinterklaas and his helpers, maybe not wanting to fully commit to the image, but still exploring it, circling around it. I see a tradition, of dutch painting and draftsmanship, a real commitment to craft but also to the weirdness of the topic. Artists are always in conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity, it's kind of a big telephone game that keeps on going. Ambiguity and uncertainty allows for multiple interpretations.