Schetsboek met 18 bladen c. 1910 - 1915

This sketchbook with 18 pages was made by Willem Witsen sometime in his life, but we don’t know exactly when! The cover is a mottled mix of browns and golds, like a well-worn map promising untold adventures. It's pretty wild to consider what's been captured within those pages. I wonder what it was like for Witsen, walking around with this book, ready to record his observations. Maybe he felt like he had a responsibility to capture the world around him, you know, like, "Oh no, the world's too beautiful, I must record it!" I often think about sketchbooks like this, what has been captured, and how artists are constantly in conversation. It's cool to think about artists like Witsen influencing so many other artists who are picking up their brushes and pencils every day. Painting is a constant conversation, isn't it? It's like we're all just riffing off each other's ideas, passing the torch from one generation to the next.