Spelende meisjes en twee zonnebadende vrouwen op het strand c. 1930 - 1940

Otto Verhagen drew this sketch of children playing and women sunbathing at the beach, using pencil and light washes of color. It's like a quick study, a moment captured with a few simple lines, focusing on capturing movement and gesture. The materiality here is really upfront. You can see the texture of the paper, feel the scratch of the pencil. The colors are pale, blushing tones—hints of pink and blue that give a sense of light and air. There's a figure of a child standing, with a bucket and spade, and the artist has used the red pencil to indicate the shadow cast by the legs, which are almost cartoonish in their rounded simplicity. Look how the figures are unfussy, each mark feels essential, each figure reduced to its essential form. This piece reminds me a little of Bonnard's sketches, that same everyday subject matter, quickly and deftly observed. It captures the fleeting nature of a beach trip—light and breezy, provisional and open.