Gezicht op Nijmegen, 1672 1900 - 1903

The Moreau brothers captured this view of Nijmegen in 1672 with pen and brush in grey ink. Look at the way they’ve described the scene; it’s not quite a painting, but neither is it just a drawing. I wonder what they were thinking as they looked out across the water, at that fortress perched so high above? Were they imagining the lives of the people who lived there, the stories that unfolded within those walls? The surface has a fluid consistency, with gentle washes building up the depiction of the city in great detail. The horizon line appears to recede; it makes me think about the passage of time. You can see they’re working with the dialogue between shadow and light to give form and depth to the city. Artists are always in conversation with one another. Each work builds upon what came before, reinterpreting and reimagining the world in new ways.