Ontwerp voor een venster met een gekroonde vrouw met baby en kind 1900 - 1903

This is a design for a stained-glass window by Antoon Derkinderen. It's all preliminary, a sketch in pencil and coloured chalk - nothing set in stone yet, everything subject to change, like artmaking itself. The design shows a crowned woman, maybe a Madonna, with a baby and child. The figures have an almost sculptural quality, their forms rounded and solid. Look at the way the blue chalk outlines the figures against the pale ground. The marks are applied with varied pressure, so there's a real sense of touch, and you can feel the hand of the artist in every line. You can imagine him stepping back, squinting at the composition, then leaning in again to add another detail, to adjust a curve, to suggest a shadow. And that border - a frieze of abstract leaf shapes, looping and swirling around the central image. It reminds me of the borders in some of Klimt's paintings, but maybe that's just me imposing my own associations onto the piece. Ultimately, art is about opening up possibilities, not closing them down.