Kalenderblad maart met stadsgezicht in Rotterdam 1923

This is Ferdinand van Wolde's “Kalenderblad Maart met stadsgezicht in Rotterdam”, a calendar page for March, with a cityscape of Rotterdam. I can imagine him, pen in hand, carefully building up the scene with these tiny, precise marks. It’s not just about depicting a place, but almost like he’s constructing it, brick by brick, boat by boat. It’s a very busy composition. You can almost feel the weight of the stone buildings, the gentle bobbing of the boats on the water. I wonder if he stood in the cold sketching the buildings, or if it was from memory? I can only imagine that it was very different then. I think about other artists who depict architecture like Lyonel Feininger, and I am reminded that images have many influences, both internal and external. I think it’s like all painting, it’s about this conversation across time, an ongoing exchange of ideas, and each artist building on what came before, finding their own voice in the process.