Schip op een werfhelling 1906 - 1945

Reijer Stolk made this sketch of a ship in a shipyard, likely on location with pencil on paper. There's something about the immediacy of a sketch – you can see the artist thinking, making decisions with each line. It’s like a glimpse into their creative process. Look at how Stolk uses hatching to create shadows and define forms. See the way the lines aren’t perfectly straight? They wiggle and breathe, giving the ship a sense of volume and weight. You can almost feel the rough texture of the wood. The way the ship is broken down into geometric shapes reminds me of Cubism. Artists like Picasso and Braque were also playing with perspective and abstraction around the same time as Stolk. This drawing really emphasizes that art is an ongoing conversation, with artists responding to and building upon each other's ideas across time. It invites us to see the world in new ways.