Twee kinderen in een boomrijke omgeving, vermoedelijk bij de Witte Brug in Den Haag 1890 - 1931

Willem Bastiaan Tholen made this drawing of children in a leafy landscape, probably with graphite on paper. I love this sort of drawing because it's so open-ended. Tholen’s touch is tentative and light, as if he's mapping the scene to get a feel for the space. It's like he's thinking out loud with his pencil. You can almost see him editing as he goes, trying different angles, different compositions. What was he thinking about when he made this, I wonder? Maybe he was thinking about how to capture the feeling of being a kid, climbing trees, and just hanging out in nature. Or maybe he was just enjoying the challenge of translating the three-dimensional world into a two-dimensional image. It reminds me of the drawings of Manet – how a quick, loose sketch can be so evocative. And it makes me think about the way that all artists are constantly in dialogue with each other, building on each other's ideas, inspiring each other to see the world in new ways.