Studieblad met twee boten 1870 - 1931

Curator: This drawing, attributed to Willem Bastiaan Tholen and dating between 1870 and 1931, is titled "Studieblad met twee boten," or "Study Sheet with Two Boats." It's currently held at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Oh, a quiet study, indeed. Seeing these boats, just wisps of pencil on paper, evokes the slow rhythm of the water. Almost makes you smell the salt air. Curator: Yes, and what’s compelling is how Tholen uses a seemingly simple medium, pencil on paper, to depict the complexity of these working vessels. Think about the labor involved in building and maintaining boats like these at that time. Editor: You're right, there's an honesty in the roughness of the lines. It feels like looking at the boatwright's original intention, not some romanticized version for show. Just the bare bones, if you will. Curator: Precisely! The material itself – pencil – and the lack of color keeps us grounded in the reality of these boats and their purpose. No glossy veneer here. Also, the sheet feels incomplete. A raw document to which someone had immediate, tactile relationship. Editor: Absolutely! And it plays with memory. One boat distinct, near, with some detail – the other, faint, a wisp like you said. I can feel the artist choosing what to pull forward into sharper focus. Like how memory works, too. What did you want to linger on. What will dissolve. Curator: A thoughtful point, but what I find significant here is the sheer number of pencil lines used to give shape. Consider the consumption of the material - graphite - and the environmental impact implied by that… Editor: I like how we can still drift away with these little boats. Curator: Despite it’s real origin as material resource and then physical presence – paper, pencil, graphite mined – formed by labor to become something mimetic and artful. An aesthetic gesture toward commerce, labor and beauty. Editor: Yes, precisely. Something about looking closely at simple tools brings me closer to an understanding of beauty itself. Thank you for pulling my mind to shore! Curator: My pleasure! We should examine more drawings, sometime!