Landschap met bomen aan een waterkant 1905

Willem Cornelis Rip made this drawing of a waterside landscape with graphite on paper. I imagine Rip outside with his sketchbook, squinting in the low light, trying to capture this moody scene. The trees are looming masses, sketched with frantic, scribbled strokes. Look closely, you can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the page, capturing not just the shapes, but the essence of the landscape. I bet Rip was trying to evoke the way it felt to be in the middle of it all. That band of scribbled marks across the middle could be water, could be land, or both. How does that line make you feel? Maybe it's a metaphor for the shifting and unstable ground beneath our feet. Or just for the fleeting moment that is captured in a drawing. Painters are constantly in dialogue with each other, across time. This humble landscape speaks to a tradition of capturing the world, not as it is, but as we feel it to be.