Brug over een kanaal 1919

This pencil drawing, 'Bridge over a Canal,' was made by Willem Cornelis Rip sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. There’s a sense of immediacy to this sketch, isn’t there? You can almost feel Rip sitting there, quickly capturing the scene before him. He's using the pencil in such a way that it feels like he’s feeling his way through the image. I imagine the movement of his hand; the push and pull of graphite across the surface as he is trying to give form to what he sees before him. Notice how he uses the simplest of marks to suggest light reflecting off the water. It reminds me of sketches by Constable, artists just observing and feeling their way through a landscape, each mark informing the next. It's like Rip is in conversation with other artists through time. The beauty of painting lies in this ongoing exchange—an unending, beautiful conversation.