Koe in het duin 1907

Willem Cornelis Rip made this drawing, ‘Koe in het duin’, which translates to ‘Cow in the Dune’, using graphite on paper. You can really see the hand of the artist in this piece; Rip’s process is so apparent in the directness of the marks. The texture created by the graphite is soft, almost like velvet, yet it has a real crispness too, particularly in the way he’s described the shadows under the cow. Look at the difference in mark-making between the landscape on the left page and the right, the contrast really emphasizes that art is not just about the final image, but the act of seeing itself. There's something about this that reminds me of Guston’s late drawings, the way both artists manage to capture so much with apparent simplicity. It's a testament to the idea that art is an ongoing conversation, an exchange of ideas across time, embracing ambiguity over fixed meanings.