Stokroos Possibly 1920 - 1927

Theo Colenbrander made Stokroos with pen and watercolor in 1920. The drawing has a whimsical, almost cartoony quality, with these looping lines that define the petals. I can imagine Colenbrander just letting the pen flow, almost like doodling. The color palette is soft, mostly pinks and yellows, with these unexpected pops of blue that give the whole thing a slightly surreal edge. I'm drawn to the way the colors fill the spaces, the texture of the paper, the transparency of the watercolor. It's like looking at a blueprint for a flower, but one that's been filtered through the artist's imagination. The little dots sprinkled across the petals remind me of Pointillism, like maybe Seurat was whispering in Colenbrander’s ear. For me, this piece speaks to the way art is always in conversation with itself, across time and between artists. It’s a reminder that nothing is ever truly original, but that everything can be made new again.