Verzameling moderne snelle tekeningen - Lente 1915 - 1917

This is Ishii Hakutei’s ‘Verzameling moderne snelle tekeningen - Lente’, or Collection of Modern Quick Sketches - Spring – it’s a book in the collection of the Rijksmuseum. I'm immediately drawn to the cover. It's so simple, unpretentious almost. I'm wondering, what kind of marks did Hakutei make inside? I'm imagining the texture of the paper, a slightly rough surface, and the way the ink would have bled ever so slightly into the fibers. And I can almost feel Hakutei's hand moving across the page, guided by intuition and a deep understanding of form. I bet he made each sketch with incredible speed, trying to capture the fleeting essence of spring. There’s a quiet beauty and understated elegance, which speaks to a sensibility rooted in Japanese aesthetics but also reaching toward something new, something modern. Hakutei's work is a conversation, a dance between tradition and innovation. What a great book!