Wolkenlucht 1882 - 1923

Willem Witsen sketched this cloudscape, Wolkenlucht, perhaps in a notebook, using a humble pencil to capture something immense. The beauty here lies in the immediacy, in the directness of the marks. Look at how Witsen renders the sky. Those scribbled lines aren't trying to trick us into thinking it's a perfect, blue sky day. Instead, there’s a real sense of movement, an attempt to grasp the fleeting nature of clouds. I love the little burst of energy on the left page, almost like a sudden flash of light breaking through the clouds. There is a definite precedent for quick sketches and 'impressions' within Dutch painting, perhaps here we can see echoes of the landscapes of Jacob Van Ruisdael. Ultimately, the sketch reminds us that art isn't always about grand statements, sometimes it's about capturing a moment, an observation, an idea that might otherwise float away, like clouds in the sky.