Schuur in de Saiterpolder 1892 - 1940

Henri Verstijnen made this drawing of a barn in the Saiterpolder with ink on paper. It's all about line here, folks, a kind of shorthand for seeing and feeling a place, and that makes it feel super immediate. Look at how Verstijnen uses these tiny, nervous strokes to build the form of the barn. Each one feels like a little decision, a response to the thing he's looking at. The lines aren’t precious. They're searching, like he's thinking through the image right there on the page, and you can almost feel the scratch of the pen. Then there's the reeds in the foreground, just these bold, confident strokes that contrast with the fidgety lines of the barn and the airy clouds. You know, this reminds me a bit of Guston's late drawings – that same quality of directness. They both embrace imperfection, and maybe that’s where the real juice is. It’s like they’re saying, "Here’s what I saw, here’s how I felt, no fancy stuff," and that's a conversation I always want to be part of.