Ornament met rolwerk c. 1901

Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof made this drawing, Ornament met rolwerk, with a pencil, on paper. Looking at those marks, the looping curve at the top, I can imagine Dijsselhof’s hand moving confidently, but also thoughtfully, across the paper. I wonder, was he thinking about the grand tradition of ornamentation? Or was he just trying to work something out? Maybe he was thinking about the relationship between form and function. Or maybe he just wanted to see what would happen if he let the pencil take him for a walk! Those three confident lines dropping down below the scroll element are really striking and quite bold, aren’t they? There’s a real sense of energy here, a feeling that Dijsselhof was exploring something new and exciting. You can see him playing with the balance between control and spontaneity. It’s a conversation that artists have been having with themselves for centuries.