Stoel c. 1901

This drawing, Stoel, by Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof is from the collection of the Rijksmuseum and shows a chair. It looks like it was made with a graphite pencil. The artist is not just representing a chair but investigating it. I imagine the artist wanted to show a chair stripped of its surface, reduced to the most essential structure, the very architecture of a chair. I see the smudges and lines suggesting that the image came into being through trial, error, and intuition. The legs of the chair stand proud, and in contrast, there are smaller tentative sketchings of the same chair, as though Dijsselhof is comparing one vision with another. It reminds me of the many different angles and versions Paul Cezanne used to capture his wife in paint. Artists are in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning.