Mevrouw Storm van 's Gravesande-Clifford en haar dochter in de tuin Possibly 1918

Carel Nicolaas Storm van 's-Gravesande made this pastel drawing of Mevrouw Storm van 's Gravesande-Clifford and her daughter in a garden. Look at the way he lays down these hazy strokes of pastel, it's all about capturing a fleeting moment, a certain kind of light. There's this real softness to the whole thing, a gentleness. The colors are muted, like faded memories, and the textures are built up with these tiny, almost imperceptible marks. See how the colors blend into one another, like the garden is dissolving into the air around it? The path seems to draw us into the garden, and the wall, just behind the figures is scumbled with tiny, soft marks, suggesting the rough texture of the stone. The whole piece is so atmospheric, so impressionistic. It reminds me a bit of Berthe Morisot’s garden scenes, that same sense of intimacy and quiet observation. I love how both artists invite us into these private worlds, where the everyday becomes something almost magical.