Huizen aan een waterkant c. 1909s

Alexander Shilling made this sketch in graphite, likely en plein air, capturing houses along a waterfront. It’s like a page torn from a visual diary. I can almost feel him, standing there, squinting at the scene, trying to capture the essence of the architecture and the water’s edge with quick, assured strokes. There’s a lovely, intuitive quality to the linework; he's not slavishly copying what he sees, but interpreting it, feeling it. The marks have this raw, honest quality, like he’s thinking aloud with his pencil. I see some structural lines indicating architectural shapes interspersed with looser, scribbled areas. There is a really interesting dialogue between the specific and the general. This little sketch reminds me that art isn't always about grand statements, it can be about the quiet observations, the daily practice of seeing and recording, that feeds into something bigger. It's a reminder of the importance of slowing down, looking closely, and finding beauty in the everyday.