Hooiwagens voor een boerderij 1913 - 1917

Alexander Shilling made this sketch of hay wagons by a farm, presumably in 1913, using what looks like graphite or charcoal on paper. The marks are quick, gestural, like he's trying to capture the essence of the scene before it disappears. It's all about process, the immediacy of seeing and recording. Look at how Shilling renders the haystacks with these scribbled, vertical lines, giving them a sense of volume and texture. You can almost feel the roughness of the hay. And then there's the soft shading, which adds depth and dimension to the composition. The sketch lines that define the shapes of the building are geometric in comparison, with the curves of the haystacks softening the composition. There's a similarity here to Van Gogh, especially in the way he uses line to convey emotion and movement. But where Van Gogh is intense and expressive, Shilling is more restrained, more observational. Ultimately, art is a conversation, a constant back-and-forth between artists across time and space, each adding their unique voice to the mix.