Bloemen c. 1916

Reijer Stolk made this pencil drawing of flowers some time before his death in 1945. Stolk was a Dutch artist who lived through both World Wars. Consider the historical context in which Stolk lived and worked. As a Dutch artist during the tumult of the early to mid-20th century, he would have been acutely aware of the fragility of life. The choice of flowers as a subject, traditionally associated with beauty and ephemerality, takes on a poignant dimension. These delicate pencil lines capture not just the appearance of the blooms, but perhaps also the subtle tension between beauty and decay, hope and despair, that permeated Stolk's world. Each petal and stem holds a quiet resilience, echoing the artist's own perseverance amidst the hardships of his time.