Schetsen van de berg Fuji 1908

Sugiura Hisui made this sketchbook of Mount Fuji, now in the Rijksmuseum, with charcoal or pencil on paper, I imagine, and then bound it in a sturdy green cover. It makes me think about the working artist. I can picture him with his pad of paper, trying to capture a mountain. It's so simple, right? Like life drawing – the most basic thing. But in art, the simplest things can be the most profound. Hisui probably did a hundred versions of this, all slightly different. Each sketch is a fresh attempt, a new way of seeing. It’s a testament to persistence, to looking again and again. He isn’t just depicting the mountain; he is trying to know it. Art is about the conversation between artists over time and the back-and-forth between the artist and the subject.