Koeien Possibly 1906 - 1909

Curator: This sketch, "Koeien," which translates to "Cows," is attributed to Willem Witsen, likely created between 1906 and 1909. It's currently held in the Rijksmuseum collection. Editor: It has such an unfinished, immediate quality. There's a raw simplicity in its form, with these gestural cows just kind of *there* on the page. It makes me think about Witsen capturing fleeting moments from rural life. Curator: Absolutely. Note how the artist utilizes a minimalist approach with both graphite and ink, focusing on form and shape with a remarkable economy of line. The cows are reduced to their essential elements. Editor: It is interesting to think about the use of the sketchbook, or page within a book—suggests the portability, the everydayness of sketching on site in contrast to laboring at a studio piece. What was his relationship to this animal? To farm life? I wonder what the circumstances of this drawing were? Curator: Precisely! It’s compelling how the artist establishes a clear interplay between positive and negative space. Consider how the relative blankness around the marks serves to emphasize each line’s deliberate, defining presence. One could consider how his approach borrows elements of Japanese prints which would have been circulating among artists at that time. Editor: The lack of background anchors them, too, doesn't it? Almost like specimens. I mean, you see these dark, compact shapes floating on the page. Curator: Yes, exactly, they have this ungrounded weight. This also echoes Witsen's wider interests, which saw him experimenting between naturalistic representation and stylized form. The contrast highlights, and really isolates the subject here for our visual assessment. Editor: The visible traces of process in 'Koeien,' like corrections and varying pressures, gives us insights into how Witsen engages directly with the realities and physical experience of creating the artwork. He captures the weight and posture of the cows, as figures of labor, not just idyllic forms in a landscape. Curator: Indeed. In a way the composition asks us to focus on the essential structural elements, the foundations upon which more finished work can be made. Editor: "Koeien" certainly shows the fascinating interplay between documentation, experience, and artistic mark-making. Curator: And it illustrates beautifully the ways in which deceptively simple works can offer a rich array of formal considerations.