Road in the Rain – Amersfoort 1914

Rik Wouters made this drawing of a street in Amersfoort with what looks like pencil and watercolor. It’s a sketch really, not overworked, capturing a gloomy day with a peach-tinged sky. I can feel the artist outside, buffeted by the elements, trying to get down the scene as quickly as possible, before the light changes or the rain gets heavier. It’s a very physical thing, drawing: holding the pencil, feeling it against the paper, smudging the charcoal with a finger. Wouters would have to be quick. The bare trees reach upwards with thin dark marks against the sky and the carriages are colored with blotches of red and green. Looking at this, I think about Van Gogh’s quick, expressive sketches, and how artists are in an ongoing conversation with each other, finding new ways of seeing and representing the world. This drawing invites us to imagine, to feel, and to connect with the artist’s experience.