Straat in Enkhuizen met een oud kanon c. 1905 - 1920

Willem Bastiaan Tholen made this drawing of a street in Enkhuizen with what looks like graphite on paper. I really love the open and exploratory feeling of the mark-making. Look at how he renders the street, all those lines moving in one direction. It really makes you think about the physical act of drawing, the pressure of the pencil on the page. There’s such an economy of line, but the whole image comes alive. What I find so compelling is the way the architecture seems to emerge out of the surface of the paper, it's not about creating a perfect likeness. For me, this piece has something of the quality of a sketch by Manet, the way he captures a fleeting moment with an immediacy of touch. It reminds us that art is a conversation across time, with each artist building on what came before. Ultimately, it’s about suggestion and the power of ambiguity to spark our imagination.