Brug c. 1887 - 1920

Willem Witsen made this drawing, Brug, with graphite on paper, and what grabs me is the way he's thinking through the image. It's like he's mapping the space, not just recording it. There's a real immediacy here, a sense of touch. You can almost feel the graphite scratching against the page, creating these rough, energetic lines. Look at the bridge itself, how it curves and dips, rendered with such simple, confident strokes. Then there's the heavy shading on the left, like a dark mass pressing in. It’s offset by the lighter, more open areas to the right, creating a real push-and-pull dynamic across the surface. This reminds me of other artists, like Paula Modersohn-Becker, who similarly used simple drawings to try to describe their surroundings. I think the beauty of this piece lies in its ambiguity. It's not trying to tell us exactly what to see, but invites us to fill in the gaps with our own imaginations.