Stadsgezicht Parijs 1906

Pieter Dupont made this drawing of a Paris cityscape with pencil, and it's all about the art of seeing. The whole image shimmers, a haze of marks conjuring a rainy day in the city. There's a horse-drawn carriage in the foreground, and a woman in a long dress strolling in the other direction. But it’s the buildings that really steal the show. Dupont used tiny, precise lines to build up the facades of the buildings, capturing their intricate details. What I love about his approach is that he doesn't try to create a perfect, photorealistic rendering. Instead, he embraces the imperfections and irregularities of the medium, and each tiny line and smudge adds to the overall sense of atmosphere and depth. This drawing reminds me a bit of Giorgio Morandi’s etchings, where simple, everyday objects are transformed into something magical. Both artists share a love for the process of making, and both understand that the beauty of art lies in its ability to open our eyes to new ways of seeing the world.