Figuur op een brug over een rivier 1913 - 1917

Alexander Shilling made this pencil sketch, ‘Figuur op een brug over een rivier’, probably en plein air. The sketch captures a fleeting moment, a scene observed and quickly translated onto paper. It's a wonderful demonstration of the immediacy and intimacy that drawing offers. I'm drawn to the area around the bridge supports, the way Shilling has used hatching to evoke the shimmering reflections on the surface of the water. There's a real sense of movement and light here, as though the water is constantly in flux. It’s not really about what the water *is* but about how it feels to experience the water. You can see echoes of Impressionism in Shilling's attention to light and atmosphere, but there's also a ruggedness to his drawing style. I'm reminded a little of Gustave Courbet, in the way he embraces the imperfections and irregularities of the natural world. Shilling reminds us that art is not about perfect representation, but about capturing a feeling, an impression, a moment in time.