Figuren in zee 1881 - 1927

Johan Antonie de Jonge made this drawing, Figuren in zee, with crayon, and you can almost feel the waxy give as it moved across the page. It’s an image rendered in strokes of blue and grey, with the little burst of red in the child’s swimsuit. Imagine de Jonge, squinting at the figures in the distance, trying to capture that glint of light on the water. Maybe he started with the horizon line, letting the blue bleed into the grey, or maybe he began with the figures, pressing hard to capture the weight of their bodies against the vastness of the sea. Look at the way he renders the figures, almost transparent, as if they’re about to dissolve back into the water from which they came. There’s a tenderness in the way he captured this ordinary moment. Artists, they’re always looking, always trying to make sense of the world through their own means. Each work builds upon another, echoing and distorting, engaging in a continuous dialogue across time.