Blanco handtekeningenblad met bladeren 1884 - 1952

Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries made this drawing of green leaves and yellow berries, on a gridded page, sometime in his life, using watercolour. It’s kind of botanical, or at least ornamental, and makes me think about the patterns of growth, the way plants arrange themselves with and against gravity. I wonder what de Vries was thinking when he made this? Was he working something out? The grid makes me think he was planning for something large, perhaps for tiles? I feel I can see him mapping it out, maybe even as a preliminary drawing for a larger work. In fact, the grid seems to be the real subject here. I can imagine him considering not just how he was representing nature, but how his drawing might eventually form part of an environment.