Bijeenkomst der dieren in het bos

Bernard Willem Wierink made "Bijeenkomst der dieren in het bos" with paint on paper. Look at the animals; they’re rendered with this sweet, soft touch, almost as if they were made of velvet. It’s like Wierink is inviting us into a children’s story, one where kindness and simplicity reign. The delicacy of the watercolor is really something, isn’t it? The way he builds up the forms with the lightest of touches, leaving so much of the paper to breathe. The colors are muted, like a memory, and the lines are gentle and unassuming. But it’s that tension between the precision of the drawing and the slight awkwardness of the composition that really gets me. In the upper section, the bear is almost cartoonish in its posture, yet the animals surrounding it feel like they could step right out of a fable. It reminds me a little bit of Arthur Rackham, that whole illustration tradition, but with a uniquely Dutch sensibility. It is art as conversation, never settling on one idea but constantly unfolding.