Vrouw met twee kinderen langs de waterkant 1881 - 1927

Johan Antonie de Jonge created this artwork of a woman with two children by the waterside with charcoal and watercolour. I can feel the artist figuring it out as they go, that kind of squinty, searching attitude, captured here in thin washes of blues and browns and the scratchy strokes of the charcoal. Imagine the artist outside, maybe it's a breezy day, and he’s trying to nail this scene with quick gestures. Look at the way he suggests the form of the seated girl on the left, her legs smudged into the sand in front of her. The artist wants to capture a moment but also create an atmosphere. The white of the paper peeks through, creating this hazy, ephemeral quality. The paint is thin, almost like a memory. It reminds me of other painters like Whistler or Manet, that fleeting sense of a world half-seen. It’s like de Jonge is having a conversation with them across time, picking up on their ideas and pushing them in new directions. And that’s what painting is all about, right? An ongoing exchange, a way of seeing and feeling that keeps evolving.