Jongen tussen de kippen c. 1925 - 1935

A. Tinbergen made this drawing of a boy amongst chickens with ink on paper. Look at the simplicity of the line, how it confidently marks out the figures, defining space with a bare minimum of means. The texture of the paper is visible, giving the image a tactile quality that invites us to imagine the artist's hand at work. See how the quick, thin lines create the boy's form and the surrounding environment. Notice the delicate hatching suggesting shadow and volume, versus the more solid lines that create the boundary of the image. It’s all so immediate, like a thought caught in ink. The choice to leave so much of the paper untouched feels like an embrace of the unfinished, a recognition that the imagination can fill in what's left unsaid. This approach reminds me of the drawings of Philip Guston, who also used simple means to explore complex emotional states. Like Guston, Tinbergen shows us that art is not about perfection, but about the process of seeing and feeling.