Kangoeroe die een eikelpijpje rookt c. 1904 - 1906

Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof made this tiny drawing of a kangaroo smoking a pipe out of an acorn sometime around the turn of the last century. It looks like it was made on a little scrap of paper with pencil or ink. The line in this piece is so casual, it’s really economical in its gestures, and together with the kangaroo smoking a pipe, suggests a childlike playfulness. Look at the way the kangaroo holds the little pipe, and then how the smoke curls! Even the little kangaroo in the background is full of playful energy. The whole composition is so slight, yet so assured. The drawing reminds me of the work of Henri Michaux, another artist who used simple means to create wonderfully strange and evocative worlds. Both artists seem to embrace the accidental and the imperfect, finding beauty in the unexpected marks and gestures that emerge during the creative process. Dijsselhof's image, like Michaux's drawings, invites us to see the world in a new and unexpected way.