Compositie met een zon, kaars en fantasiefiguren c. 1916

Reijer Stolk made this drawing with pencil, calling it, Composition with a Sun, Candle and Fantasy Figures. It's all about lines, quick and thin, kind of nervous, and it makes me think about how drawings happen in a moment. The funny sun in the top right, for instance – it's got this little face and these spiky rays. It feels like Stolk just wanted to get it down on paper before it disappeared. There’s a table, a bottle and glass, a chair. It's like he's letting us into his head, showing us what he sees, or maybe what he imagines. Look at the candle, right at the front. It’s simple, a few lines, but it anchors the whole image. Maybe Stolk was thinking about light, about how it changes things, how it makes us see things differently. It reminds me a little of James Ensor, who made paintings full of strange characters and weird light. Art is always like that, an ongoing conversation, ideas bouncing around. There's no right way to see it.