Drie kinderen in een kippenhok 1916

Nelly Spoor made "Three Children in a Chicken Coop" with pen on paper. The fine lines of the pen create a detailed yet delicate illustration of children peering into a chicken coop. I imagine Spoor carefully building up the composition, starting perhaps with the bold outline of the chicken, then adding the curious children, their clothes, and then the environment, bit by bit, hatching and cross-hatching to create depth and shadow. Look at the way she's rendered the posture of the boy bending forward. You can almost feel his intense focus, the weight of his curiosity pulling him towards the coop! The details in their outfits—the little girl's bow and gathered skirt, the boy's hat with its jaunty feather, the girl's floral hat, and the chicken's comb —give such life and personality to the scene, don't they? It reminds me of illustrators like Kate Greenaway or Beatrix Potter, who turned everyday scenes into something wondrous. You can feel how, like all artists, Spoor was in an ongoing conversation with other illustrators, and how this exchange of ideas enriches our own creative imagination.