Wilgen en een hek bij een sloot 1880 - 1931

This landscape drawing was made by Gerrit van Dokkum. It’s a field with trees, a canal, and a broken-down old fence. I wonder what the artist was thinking, standing in this field? The drawing has such a directness, no corrections, but it looks as if it has been worked over, rubbed down, maybe to just get the tonality right. Look at the mark-making: all those little lines, all those little strokes. They must have been so cold, standing in that field, drawing with all those rapid movements of the hand to catch every detail, to catch every blade of grass. I bet van Dokkum was inspired by earlier landscape artists, painters like the Impressionists, who understood how to capture light and atmosphere. It is a simple scene, but it's full of life, isn’t it? The artist finds beauty and interest in the ordinary!