Schetsboek met 26 bladen 1914

This is the cover of a sketchbook of 26 pages by Willem Witsen. Imagine Witsen holding this book, maybe in his pocket, a portable place to record ideas and sketches. The cover itself is a landscape. A brown ground marked with drips and splatters of dark ink. Look at the upper right corner of the book. What happened there? Did something spill? Was it intentional? Was it a test, a wiping of the brush, or something else entirely? The beauty of a painter's sketchbook is that it is a place to try things out, to experiment and play. You can almost see the artist, maybe frustrated, maybe excited, making marks, turning the book around, and engaging in a conversation with it. Think of other artists’ sketchbooks, like Cy Twombly and his free-flowing gestures. Witsen’s sketchbook cover is part of that conversation. These marks, these gestures, connect artists across time.