Dorpsgezicht met kerktoren 1923

Alexander Shilling made this quick sketch of a village with a church tower sometime between 1874 and 1937 with graphite on paper. It's got that beautiful, economical quality of a drawing made on the spot, you know? Like, he just whipped it out and started laying down those quick, almost frantic lines to capture the essence of the scene. I can almost feel the breeze and see him squinting at the light. The way he suggests form with these simple strokes is pretty amazing. You can see the influence of artists like Van Gogh, who used line in a similar way to create a sense of movement and energy. It feels honest, unpretentious. Shilling is in dialogue with Vincent, and now we're in dialogue with him, and that's pretty great.