Dorpsgezicht 1872 - 1939

Egbert Rubertus Derk Schaap made this drawing, Dorpsgezicht, with graphite on paper. I’m thinking about the touch, the marks made by Schaap to make this image of houses, trees, and a road. Imagine his hand moving lightly, swiftly. This work is so full of air, it's almost atmospheric. With just a few strokes, Schaap has suggested so much about the buildings – their form, their texture, the way light falls on them. You can almost feel what it was like to be there. How does Schaap bring the experience of the village to life? I love the lone figure in the distance. What are they thinking? Where are they going? The beauty of the drawing is that he leaves space for us, the viewer, to project ourselves into the scene and become a part of the story. I wonder how Schaap’s drawing relates to the work of other artists who were exploring similar themes, like the Barbizon school painters, for instance. In painting and drawing, artists are constantly building on each other’s ideas, inspiring each other across time.