Zeilschepen en mannen en vrouwen in werkkleding 1900 - 1931

Willem Bastiaan Tholen made this drawing with graphite on paper, capturing boats, men and women in work clothes. Look at the page, and how the artist moves so freely. The lines are swift, searching, as if Tholen is trying to capture a fleeting moment, a feeling, rather than a perfect image. I think you get the sense that it’s about artmaking as a process, an exploratory journey. See how the light dances on the sails of the boat. It's not just about the shape of the sail, but about how the light defines it, gives it volume. The texture of the paper, with its subtle grain, adds to this effect, softening the lines, giving the whole image a hazy, dreamlike quality. And the figures, they are almost ghostly, barely there, yet they suggest a whole world of activity, of lives lived by the sea. Tholen’s fellow Dutchman, Johan Jongkind, was also drawn to the sea. Both artists were interested in capturing the atmosphere, the play of light on water, embracing ambiguity over rigid representation.