Florale ornamenten c. 1901

Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof made this drawing, Florale ornamenten, with a pencil on paper. It's so interesting to see the raw bones of a design, isn't it? I love how Dijsselhof lays out these floral ornaments. It's like he's thinking aloud on paper, exploring different ways to make a corner flourish or a stem curl. The graphite has this beautiful, almost metallic sheen in some areas, which really makes you appreciate the materiality of the drawing. I’m drawn to the squiggles and the way the lines vary in thickness, from almost disappearing to bearing down on the page. There's a lightness here, a freedom in the way the artist approaches the page. It reminds me a little of William Morris, or even some Art Nouveau designs, but there's something uniquely Dijsselhof's in how he combines structure with these organic forms. It's a great reminder that art is just this ongoing conversation, a visual game of telephone across time.