Man reikt een vrouw een papier met scherven aan before 1945

Hans Borrebach made this work, Man reikt een vrouw een papier met scherven aan, using ink and watercolor, in a quick and graphic style. I’m thinking about how he might have approached the blank page. What feeling did he want to express with such a simple and surreal scene? How much of his world view is caught up in the marks he makes? The characters are all defined with such clean, confident lines, but the blue wash of color above them gives a kind of ethereal, dream-like feeling to the scene. I imagine the artist’s pen dancing across the page, making the dark outlines of the figures, but also the quick sketchy lines that give the scene depth. The white paint placed over the image feels like a correction but also an acceptance of imperfection. It's amazing how such a small drawing can offer such a strange and funny view of the world.