Gebouwen aan het water 1909

Johan Antonie de Jonge made this pencil drawing, 'Gebouwen aan het water' or 'Buildings on the water,' with such directness—you can almost feel the graphite scratching the paper, can't you? I wonder, was he outside? It has the feeling of a quick sketch made to capture a scene before the light changed. It's all about the buildings reflected in the water, this kind of dark shimmering quality, but in such an abbreviated way. The artist uses an economy of line and tone that just sings. Look how he suggests the clouds with these dark horizontal marks, and then the buildings with these dark hatching marks—it looks so effortless, but it's really sophisticated mark making, right? It reminds me of those tonalist landscape painters. We can see how artists across time are always learning from each other, even when they think they are working on their own. There's a conversation that has been going on for centuries. That’s what I love about painting—how it embraces uncertainty, invites multiple readings, and becomes a form of expression that is so embodied, immediate, and intuitive.