Pijlstaartrog c. 1901

This is a drawing of a stingray by Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof, and it's like looking at a fleeting thought, all done in pencil. The sketchiness lets you see how Dijsselhof was thinking, how he built up the image bit by bit. I’m really drawn to the contrast between the dense, almost scribbled shading around the ray, and the clean lines defining its form. It’s like the ray is emerging from a cloud of graphite. The texture feels immediate, you can almost feel the tooth of the paper. Look at the little flourish on the ray's body – it’s a simple gesture but it adds so much personality, like a signature. This piece reminds me a little of Odilon Redon's charcoal drawings, the way he used light and shadow to create these dreamlike images. Art's just an ongoing conversation, and it's great that we can all listen in.