Ontwerp voor raam in het Noordertransept in de Dom te Utrecht c. 1934

Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst made this design for a window in Utrecht Cathedral using crayon and pencil. Just looking at it, I imagine him blocking out shapes, the pressure of the crayon leaving deep marks on the paper, like excavating a site. You can see the bones of the leading for the stained glass, how it dictates the composition. I bet he was thinking hard about light and shadow, how the colours would glow when the sun hit them. The subdued palette and fractured forms make me think of early cubism, but there's also something ancient and medieval about it, like a fragment of a forgotten illuminated manuscript. The shapes remind me of fish, or birds, or maybe even souls floating upwards. It’s like he's trying to capture something ephemeral, something just out of reach. We painters, we're all in conversation with each other, across time and space, trying to figure out how to make sense of the world through colour and form. We leave space for ambiguity and emotion to shine through, welcoming multiple interpretations and meaning.