Vaart met roeiboot in weidelandschap met molen 1890 - 1930

Philip Zilcken made this etching of a rowboat on a polder landscape. It’s a symphony of pale greys, scratched into the surface, like a memory fading into time. I imagine Zilcken standing on the edge of the canal, squinting at the light. He works the plate, scraping back the metal, building up the image bit by bit. The windmill in the background, those tiny figures in the boat – they’re all built from these delicate marks, each one a decision, a tiny act of translation. Look at the texture he creates, the way the sky shimmers, almost dissolving into the water. It reminds me of Whistler, of course, but there's something uniquely Dutch about it. As painters, we're all in conversation, reaching back, pulling forward, trying to capture something elusive. It feels like Zilcken is not just depicting a scene, but trying to catch a mood, an atmosphere, a feeling of quiet contemplation.