Gezicht op Rotterdam vanaf het water 1910

Simon Moulijn made this "Gezicht op Rotterdam vanaf het water" with etching. He must have been using the etching needle like a pencil, because he's letting the tool describe the scene in subtle tonal shifts and line work. Look at how the lines of the water ripple across the surface. Aren't you calmed by that? The clouds in the sky use the same approach, but they're more smudgy and atmospheric. Everything is carefully drawn. It's a world of light and dark; but the details are all there, like the seagulls that guide our eyes through the work. It reminds me of Whistler's etchings of the Thames. Both artists capture the feeling of a place through these monochrome prints. But where Whistler is all about mood, Moulijn's got a sharp eye for detail. What is lasting is the way these details accumulate to become something really moving. It's like he is saying, slow down, look closely, there is beauty everywhere.