Gezicht op de haven van Nice 1912

Carel Nicolaas Storm van 's-Gravesande made this view of the port of Nice with crayons, and the marks are everywhere. You can see his process in the hatching and cross-hatching he uses to build up the image. There's this great looseness about the whole thing. It's not trying to be too perfect. The surface feels almost like raw canvas. See the way he lets the crayon skip and dance across the paper, especially in the water and the boats? It creates this shimmering, almost dreamlike effect, like a memory fading in and out. It’s as if the scene is constantly in motion, never quite settling into a fixed image. This reminds me a little of Boudin's beach scenes, that same sense of fleeting light and atmosphere. But where Boudin is all about capturing the moment, van 's-Gravesande is more interested in the feeling of a place, the way it lingers in your mind long after you've left. It's a reminder that art is about more than just what you see, it's about how you feel.