Roedel vossen aan een waterkant c. 1904 - 1906

Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof sketched these foxes by a riverbank, and other little animals besides, using pencil on paper. I’m thinking of the artist, imagining them in a zoo perhaps, quickly trying to capture these creatures with a few lines. I love how the pencil lines are so minimal. It's almost like a wire sculpture, each line defining the form and capturing the essence of the animal with such economy. You can feel the artist trying to get it down quickly, capturing the scene, the ducks bobbing in the water, the frog contemplating a dive. It's funny, the artist's hand has danced across the paper, creating a whole little world with just a few marks! There is a real sense of movement and liveliness to these animals, even though they are just simple outlines. And isn’t that the magic of drawing? How a simple line can conjure a whole world of feeling and imagination?