Schets van een haventje 1876 - 1951

Theo Nieuwenhuis made this small harbor sketch with pencil on paper, and it’s a real lesson in how much you can say with so little. Look at the surface, see how he's layered these quick, almost scribbled lines. The marks are raw, immediate; you can feel the artist trying to capture a fleeting impression. It’s like he’s wrestling with the scene, trying to pin down something that’s just out of reach. And the paper itself is almost like another character in the work, with a torn piece in the upper part adding to the sense of history and chance. I keep thinking about how a simple, repeated mark – like the horizontal scribble for the water – can become a whole world. It’s like those Agnes Martin paintings where the subtle lines accumulate into something huge. Nieuwenhuis reminds us that art doesn’t need to shout; it can whisper too.