Gezicht op Grenzach-Wyhlen 1905 - 1909

Willem Cornelis Rip made this pencil sketch of Grenzach-Wyhlen sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century, in a humble sketchbook, no doubt. It’s just pure looking, right? He wasn’t trying to be fancy, just to capture the line of things. I love the way the marks are so tentative, searching, like he's feeling his way through the landscape. You can almost feel the breeze, the cool of the day. He gets down the essence of the village with such economical strokes—a church spire, rooftops, a little figure walking. It reminds you that seeing is a kind of touch, a tracing of outlines and edges that build into a feeling. I think of other artists who drew landscapes, like Van Gogh, and how they were all trying to get at something beyond just what was in front of them. The feeling of being there. Painters are always looking at each other, aren’t they?