Man op jaagpad die een boot voortduwt met een stok Possibly 1908

Alexander Shilling made this drawing of a man on a towpath pushing a boat with a pole, and you can see how the marks are searching, almost like the artist is feeling his way through the scene. The whole thing has this incredible lightness, the marks are so sparse, but they manage to convey movement and effort. Look at the way Shilling uses hatching to suggest the weight of the man's body, leaning into the pole. It’s like he's captured a fleeting moment, a gesture that speaks to the everyday labor of life. The composition is kind of odd, with the figure cut off, but that adds to the immediacy, like a snapshot. It reminds me a bit of some of Degas's drawings, that same interest in capturing the human figure in motion with a kind of informal, sketch-like quality. Ultimately, this drawing embraces ambiguity. It's a reminder that art doesn't need to be perfect to be powerful.