Vrouw en kinderen maken een wandeling over de hei 1885 - 1938

This is a pen and ink drawing by Gillis Bernhard Mulder, showing a woman and children walking across a heath. The image is built up from multiple tiny strokes that together form a larger picture. You can really see the artist's hand in the level of detail that has gone into the dresses of the figures, and the landscape around them. The nature of pen and ink lends itself to detailed work but it is also very labor intensive. Consider the amount of time and patience that has been spent on the visual texture of this drawing, with all its careful, precise marks. Mulder would have understood the conventions of this medium intimately, skillfully employing line weight and density to create a rich tonal range, from the dark shadows to the bright highlights on the heath. Thinking about this process helps us appreciate not just the image itself, but the sheer amount of work that went into its making. It also reminds us that all works of art are, fundamentally, records of human effort and skill.