Gezicht op Maastricht, 1672 1900 - 1903

Frères Moreau created this View of Maastricht in 1672 using pen and grey ink. It looks like they were standing on a bank, sketching this walled city across the water with a steady hand. You can see the grey ink bleeding into the paper. I wonder if it was raining when they made this. Or perhaps the effect is due to the passing of time, with the ink expanding and settling into the fibers of the paper. I imagine them deciding where to put each line, how to make the perspective work, what to leave in and what to leave out. It looks like they made many small marks to create the impression of volume and texture. All those tiny hatches build up a detailed and atmospheric scene. I love to think that artists are always in conversation with one another, even across centuries. Frères Moreau may have been looking at earlier landscape artists, just as later artists may have looked at their work for inspiration. And now, here we are, still looking and learning.