Figuren bij een reeks bomen aan de waterkant 1900 - 1931

Willem Bastiaan Tholen made this sketch of figures by trees at the waterside with a pencil. There is something very pleasing in the directness of the drawing, it is like a snapshot. The marks are incredibly varied from hatching to small squiggles. I really like that section of tree on the right hand side. It is interesting that the artist has left the lines that make up the side of the tree open and unclosed. It reminds me of the drawings of Van Gogh, although without that sense of torment, the line is searching and open. Maybe the artist used these sketches as inspiration for larger paintings back in the studio, you can sense him looking and thinking. For me the best art has a certain kind of ambiguity that makes you want to come back to it again and again.