Landschap met bomen en bebouwing c. 1915 - 1920

Willem Witsen made this landscape with trees and buildings in pencil, and I love the way that a simple tool can be used to create such a suggestive, almost dreamlike space. Look how the marks vary, from light, tentative lines to areas of dense shading that suggest volume and depth. You can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the page, building up the image layer by layer. The trees in the foreground are rendered with quick, energetic strokes, while the buildings in the background are more loosely defined. There’s something really appealing about the unfinished quality of this drawing. It feels like a snapshot of a fleeting moment, capturing the essence of the landscape without getting bogged down in details. Witsen’s contemporary, Whistler, was another master of the suggestive sketch; both understood the power of suggestion over explicit representation. Ultimately, it’s this ambiguity that allows us to bring our own experiences and interpretations to the work.