Figuren en bomen op een kade 1870 - 1923

This sketch was made by Willem Witsen, on paper with a black chalk. Here, the stark trees stand guard over the landscape, their bare branches reaching towards the heavens like supplicating arms, evoking the ancient symbol of the axis mundi, the world tree. This motif reappears across cultures, from the Norse Yggdrasil to the Tree of Knowledge in Genesis. The very act of depicting the tree, bare and reaching, speaks to a deep-seated human need to connect with the natural world, a primal yearning for rootedness and understanding. We see, too, in the silhouetted figures a representation of humanity's fleeting presence against the backdrop of nature's enduring power. This is a scene laden with emotional weight, where the starkness of the landscape and the anonymity of the figures create a sense of isolation and introspection, inviting us to contemplate our place within the grand, cyclical drama of existence.