Ontwerp met kaders en florale ornamenten 1884 - 1952

Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries made this design with frames and floral ornaments, and what strikes me is the way he balances precision with what feels like intuitive mark-making. The golden, floral section at the top is really fascinating. De Vries used a limited palette but got so much variety in tone. Look at how the paint sits on the paper: thin washes, but in some areas there's a concentration of pigment that creates a textured effect, almost like the gold has tarnished slightly. It feels old, or at least like a study of something very old. I love how the golden latticework sits atop a set of very measured pencil lines, and the flat gray bars seem to hold everything in place. This tension is what makes the work so engaging! There’s a dance between control and looseness, which gives the artwork a sense of depth and playfulness. It reminds me a bit of Hilma af Klint, someone else interested in geometry, but maybe from a very different place. Art is a conversation, right?