Ontwerp voor raam in het Noordertransept in de Dom te Utrecht c. 1934

Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst designed this window for the Dom in Utrecht using chalk and graphite. You can see the making so clearly, can’t you? The colors, warm reds and earthy browns, are like embers glowing through the pale stone tracery. Look at how the black lines confidently divide the space, creating these sturdy, puzzle-like shapes, and holding the whole image together. I love that these lines feel so graphic and certain, like a blueprint, yet within them, there's all this smudgy, soft chalkiness. The textures feel so immediate, like I could run my finger across the surface and feel the grain of the paper and the layers of pigment. Holst reminds me a little of artists like Marsden Hartley, who was also trying to find a new language for representing spiritual themes, and who also wasn’t afraid of a bit of murkiness. It’s this combination of boldness and subtlety that keeps you guessing, always finding something new.