Stoomketel 1902

Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst made this drawing of a steam boiler at an unknown date with graphite on paper. It's all about process, isn't it? Holst lays down a foundation of faint lines, establishing the shapes before committing to the bold shading on the left. Look at that confident mark-making! You can almost feel him working through the problem of how to represent this hunk of machinery in two dimensions. The lightbulb hanging from the top seems like it might be a little nod to the painter's studio. Notice the contrast between the heavily worked areas and the ghostly suggestions of form on the right, it’s like he's inviting us to witness the artistic decisions that informed his process. It makes me think of other draughtsmen like Peter Doig, artists who let you see the scaffolding of their image-making, revealing the underlying structure. It's all about that beautiful ambiguity, that space between what's known and what's still becoming.