Molen aan water, Wijk bij Duurstede c. 1906

Willem Witsen made this evocative etching of a windmill in Wijk bij Duurstede using brown ink on paper. The sepia tones create a nocturnal scene, and I can imagine Witsen squinting at the landscape, his hand moving deftly to capture the gloom. The etching feels very contemporary; the dark, almost muddy foreground is like a Rothko abstract painting. You can imagine him wiping the plate, adding more ink, seeing what happens. I wonder if Witsen knew Whistler's work because I see a similar interest in tonal harmony. The horizontal lines above the windmill are interesting; they could represent the sky, or are they simply marks of the etching process? I like to think of artists as being in an ongoing conversation, and Witsen's work is a reminder that painting is a form of embodied expression that embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple readings over time.