Ontwerp voor raam in het Noordertransept in de Dom te Utrecht c. 1934

Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst made this design for a stained-glass window with crayon and chalk. Imagine him standing before a large sheet of paper, mapping out the design, maybe wrestling with the challenge of translating a vision into a new medium. The brown hues dominate, intersected by a web of thick, dark lines, while small sections of blue peek through like glimpses of sky. Holst is known for his symbolism, so you wonder about these shapes, which almost suggest figurative forms. There's an earthiness, a groundedness to it. I wonder what it might be like to blow these colors into glass, and for them to then transmit light. It resonates with other painters like Rouault, who also worked with stained glass aesthetics. Artists are always in conversation with one another across time, and across mediums, riffing on shared ideas. Holst makes you reflect on how limitations can birth new perspectives. By embracing the constraints of stained glass, he discovered new ways of seeing.