Gezicht op een stad of dorp c. 1916 - 1945

This drawing, "Gezicht op een stad of dorp" by Reijer Stolk, presents a skeletal cityscape rendered in delicate pencil lines. The composition is sparse, almost diagrammatic, reducing buildings to their essential contours. This creates a ghostly, ethereal impression. Stolk's use of line is particularly striking. Each stroke appears tentative, as if the city is emerging from or dissolving back into the page. There is a clear sense of the provisional, a structuralist perspective where the city is not fixed but in a state of flux. The absence of shading or detail draws attention to the underlying architecture. It’s a semiotic reduction of urban space, a code waiting to be deciphered. The drawing challenges the notion of the city as a solid, immutable entity, and instead suggests it is an idea. This skeletal representation prompts us to consider what constitutes a city and how we perceive its form.