Landschap met brug 1913 - 1917

Alexander Shilling made this drawing of a landscape with a bridge using graphite on paper. Graphite, though seemingly simple, speaks volumes about industrialization. It’s extracted from the earth, processed, and formed into pencils, tools that democratized drawing. Here, see how Shilling coaxes depth from the humble pencil. He varies the pressure to create darker, denser marks for the trees and reflections in the water, contrasting with the lighter, sketchier lines of the distant hills. The bridge, the drawing's focal point, is rendered with a network of lines, suggesting its wooden construction. Consider the labor embedded in this image: from the mining of graphite to the manufacturing of paper, and the artist's own hand moving across the page. Shilling elevates these commonplace materials, urging us to see beauty in the everyday and to appreciate the skill involved in transforming ordinary materials into art.