Twee koeien bij een hek 1905

Willem Cornelis Rip sketched these two cows beside a fence, probably en plein air, using graphite on paper. You can almost feel the artist outside, squinting at the scene, trying to capture the essence of those bovine forms. I imagine Rip standing there, charcoal in hand, thinking about tone, about how to suggest weight and texture with just a few deft marks. See how the lines are kind of scratchy and uncertain? It’s like he’s feeling his way through the scene, letting the drawing emerge from the paper. The cows are simplified, almost abstracted. They are reduced to their basic shapes, their essence captured in a few quick strokes. It’s a very immediate, physical way of working, and it’s something that connects Rip to a whole tradition of painters, from the Barbizon school to Impressionism. Painters are constantly learning from each other, riffing on each other’s ideas and techniques, pushing the boundaries of what painting can be.