Rivieroever met schepen te Benares Possibly 1914

This drawing of a riverbank with boats in Benares was made by Wijnand Otto Jan Nieuwenkamp, though it feels like the work of an outsider artist, someone like Madge Gill, but with boats! The image is formed of thousands of tiny marks that gradually build up the scene, like a swarm of bees building a hive. It's all soft pencil, delicately rendered, but it really captures the architecture in the background, the way these towers and temples rise up in a jumble. I find myself drifting into the picture, my eye snagging on the masts of the boats in the foreground, then rising up to take in the skyline. The way the artist uses the pencil to create the impression of light is fascinating, especially the way he depicts the reflections in the water. It makes me think of Piranesi, but with an Asian inflection. This is not so much a drawing of a real place, as a kind of fantasy made real on paper.