Rode brug in de benedenstad van Soerabaja op Oost-Java 1925

Here's Johannes Nicolaas's Rode brug in de benedenstad van Soerabaja op Oost-Java. It's an etching of a landscape with boats from a low vantage point. I feel the artist’s sensitivity to the world around him; maybe he was right there on the riverbank in Java, sketching with a sense of quiet curiosity. The etching looks as though it was made with soft pencils. The tones are so light and delicate, with so much visible texture of the paper coming through the sparse lines. Look how the architectural lines, along the tops of the buildings, are so faint they almost disappear into the sky. I wonder what Nicolaas was thinking, rendering the world with such attentiveness. It's as though he wasn't trying to impress anyone, just trying to capture what he saw. Artists are always in conversation with one another, and they invite us to join in. There’s no right or wrong way to respond, just different ways of seeing and feeling.