Triomfbogen c. 1901

Here we have Dijsselhof's sketch of triumphal arches done with graphite on paper, probably around the turn of the century. You can see the artist circling around his subject. I feel for this artist, trying to get it right. You know, when you draw, things never line up the way you expect. There’s a visible struggle in the drawing. It's like he's thinking aloud, working through the shapes and volumes of these arches. You can imagine him stepping back, squinting, and then diving back in with the graphite, trying to capture the essence of these grand structures. Look how he's playing with the curves and lines, deciding how much detail to include. Does he include this detail or that? You can almost see him erasing and redrawing, searching for the perfect form. It reminds me of the way artists build on each other's ideas across time, like a visual conversation. We're all just trying to figure things out, one line at a time.