Ornamenten met bloemen c. 1901

This is a drawing by Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof, with sketches of floral ornaments. Just imagine the hand moving across the paper, figuring it out as it goes, maybe with a fountain pen, or a thin brush and ink. I wonder if this was practice for something bigger? It’s hard to say exactly what Dijsselhof was thinking, but he seemed to be playing with the way these vines and blooms might curl around a surface. I think he's looking at nature, but reinterpreting it, maybe a little stiff, but also fluid. It reminds me of the way Matisse would work out his compositions with line, always searching for that perfect balance between observation and invention. Artists are always riffing off each other, you know? It's one big conversation that keeps going. And that's the beauty of art – it's never really finished, just waiting for the next person to pick up the thread.