Rivierlandschap met molens 1907

Willem Cornelis Rip made this River Landscape with Mills as a sketch, quickly, using graphite on paper. Look at the rubbed marks of the graphite, smudged into the fibres of the page, as if the artist was trying to capture a fleeting impression of the landscape. What was it like to be Rip, standing there, squinting against the light, his fingers and eyes working together to find the right mark to describe the turning of the mills and the weight of the clouds? I love the low horizon line, the land seems to stretch forever. The repetitive marks remind me of the landscapes of Hercules Segers – who knew a thing or two about the bleak flatness of landscape – and the subtle textures he worked into his printing plates. Artists like Rip and Segers are engaged in an ongoing conversation, separated by time but united in the act of seeing and responding to the world.