Meisje met een hoepel en hond c. 1904 - 1906

Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof made this drawing of a girl with a hoop and dog with pencil, maybe, on paper. It's all about the line here. I love how the artist captured so much with so little. Check out the dog, it’s all stick legs, yet he seems ready to bounce. The girl’s dress is just a few simple lines, but you get a sense of its shape and how it hangs. There’s a tenderness in the way the lines are drawn. It reminds me of some of Picasso’s line drawings. There’s a similar quality of capturing the essence of a thing with the fewest possible marks. Both artists seem to have a way of seeing that is both childlike and deeply sophisticated. It makes me want to pick up a pencil and start drawing!