Glas-in-loodraam met een man met schep 1921 - 1942

Here's a drawing for a stained-glass window by Reijer Cornelis Joseph Godefrooij, who was working in the early 1940s. You can see how he’s mapped out the composition with a grid, dividing the surface into sections, like a puzzle waiting to be assembled. Imagine the artist at his desk, pencil in hand, figuring out how to translate the world into light and color through glass. The man with the shovel, the hero of this piece, he stands tall. The earth tones—greens and browns—give a sense of the grounded, physical labor. I think about the tradition of stained glass, the weight of history, and the echoes of cathedrals. It's like Godefrooij is riffing on this history, taking something old and making it new. It reminds me of other artists, like Mondrian, who were also obsessed with grids and finding new ways to represent reality. Painting is a long conversation. Each artist listens, responds, and adds their own voice.