Ontwerp voor kostuum voor Apollo 1910 - 1918

This costume design for Apollo was made by Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst with pen, graphite, and watercolour. The way the watercolour seeps into the paper feels really important, the process of how the work is made seems to be as visible as the figure itself. There’s this push and pull between the flat decorative quality and an attempt to describe depth. Holst uses these thin, watery washes of colour, especially in the background, which gives it this ethereal, otherworldly feel. See how the green almost vibrates behind Apollo? The way the lines are drawn—so deliberate and clean—makes me think of printmaking, a sense of wanting to define a clear and precise boundary, even if the colours are more fluid. It reminds me a bit of Gustav Klimt's early work, that similar interest in ornamentation and classical themes. But where Klimt goes for opulence, Holst keeps it restrained, almost like a study in the tension between control and letting go. It’s like a conversation between the hand and the material, each guiding the other in a dance.