Rivierlandschap met molens 1919 - 1921

This is Willem Cornelis Rip’s drawing of a River Landscape with Mills. It’s an intimate sketch, and the artist uses pencil to capture this scene. Look at the marks he makes, almost scribbling, with these little black lines, a kind of tonal hatching that creates a sense of depth and texture. I can imagine Rip outside with a sketchbook in tow. He sees a composition in the landscape and starts scribbling away, capturing the scene before him. I think the artist responded to something in the relationship between the windmills and the river—a kind of dialogue between nature and industry. There is something so elemental about it. I think about Van Gogh, Millet, and all of those artists doing these kinds of quick sketches in nature. It's a kind of shorthand, isn't it? Rip wasn't interested in perfection. He was interested in conveying an idea, a feeling, a moment. And that's what makes it so powerful.