Ontwerp voor vignet van de Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij 1874 - 1945

Carel Adolph Lion Cachet made this design for a vignette with paint, somewhere, sometime. There is a kind of wild energy in the application of the paint. The colours are muted, sandy yellows and blues, but the brushstrokes are loose and expressive, swirling around the boat. The texture of the waves, almost metallic, look like they might swallow the ship whole. I like the way he's captured the feeling of being at sea – the constant motion, the sense of being surrounded by something vast and powerful. The ship, so carefully rendered, looks so small in comparison to the churning water around it. The little squares of the ship are like a stage set, the rest is all theatre. This reminds me of some of Emil Nolde's seascapes, where the raw, gestural brushwork conveys the drama and intensity of nature. Both artists seem interested in capturing a fleeting moment, an emotional response to a scene, rather than a literal depiction. It's this ambiguity, this openness to interpretation, that makes art so endlessly fascinating.