Brug te Chartres met kerktorens op de achtergrond 1888 - 1934

This is Willem Adrianus Grondhout’s ‘Bridge at Chartres with church towers in the background’, and it’s a drawing on wood. The wood grain isn’t hidden, but used as a kind of ready-made texture, like a memory of the forest, and it lends a warm, aged quality to the picture. The drawing is a light touch, a delicate rendering of architectural forms. Grondhout uses thin lines to sketch the bridge, buildings and spires of Chartres, capturing the scene with a sense of quiet observation. Look how the textures in the wood feel like the flow of water under the bridge. See the softness of the marks! The drawing almost floats on the surface. There’s a transparency to the whole thing, a feeling of transience, like a half-remembered dream. It makes me think of Symbolist artists like Odilon Redon who also valued suggestion and ambiguity over literal representation. It’s as if Grondhout is inviting us to fill in the gaps, to bring our own experiences and associations to the work. The wood is a collaborator.