Hooioppers in een weiland c. 1909s

Alexander Shilling made this pencil drawing, Hooioppers in een weiland, probably en plein air. Look at how Shilling builds up the image with short, scribbly marks that suggest rather than define form. It’s like he’s feeling his way through the landscape. The drawing has a casualness, an openness, that invites you in. There’s a beautiful contrast between the heavily worked areas on the right and the ghostly traces on the left page. I love how the artist is thinking through the process here, it's like a little visual poem! The pencil strokes, the way the forms emerge from the paper, remind me of Rodin's drawings - equally committed to the experience of the medium. For me, the magic of art lies in these unresolved, tentative moments, when the artist is still figuring things out. They celebrate ambiguity over fixed statements.