Zeemeeuwen bij het water 1881 - 1949

Lucie van Dam van Isselt made this print of seagulls, probably directly from observation; you can see it in the looseness of her marks. Look at the way she seems to have scratched the image into the plate. There’s a real sense of freedom in the marks, a kind of controlled chaos. She lets the lines build up to create form, using a spare and subtle palette. The soft grey ink, combined with the white of the paper, gives the whole scene a hazy, dreamlike quality. See the bird in flight on the left. It is rendered with such economy, a few quick lines suggesting its wings, body, and dangling feet. It feels so alive, so full of movement. There’s something about the directness and honesty of approach that reminds me of Paula Modersohn-Becker’s early landscapes. Both artists share a willingness to embrace imperfection and ambiguity, finding beauty in the raw, unfiltered experience of the world around them. Art is not about perfect replication; it’s about capturing a feeling, an essence, a moment in time.