Zeilboot bij of op een strand c. 1909s

Curator: Alexander Shilling’s drawing, “Zeilboot bij of op een strand,” or “Sailboat at or on a beach,” likely from the 1900s, offers us a glimpse into the artist’s private world. It's a page torn from a sketchbook, rendered in pencil and pen on paper. Editor: My immediate impression is of something unfinished, raw, a moment caught and quickly translated onto the page. There's a palpable energy in those lines. Curator: Absolutely, the immediacy is striking. I’m drawn to what the choice of a sketchbook says about the context of art-making in the early 20th century. How might Shilling's access to materials and artistic training shape the landscape genre? Editor: It makes me consider accessibility, really. A sketchbook suggests intimacy, a practice divorced from the pressures of exhibition or sale. Perhaps Shilling wasn't constrained by prevailing academic standards in this medium, freeing him to play with form and composition. Curator: Indeed. And looking at the two separate sketches on facing pages, you begin to consider it almost like a storyboard. Perhaps Shilling wanted to portray this sailboat from two distinct views to see how a slight shift in point-of-view affects the interpretation of space and motion? Editor: Yes! And note how the right-hand drawing is more defined while the left is a hazy sketch—an emotional recollection, rather than a meticulous study. Did Shilling aim to present diverse depictions in tandem, suggesting memory’s fragmented nature? Curator: It pushes me to think about how gender and class intersected in artistic spaces at this time. How was an emerging artist like Shilling navigating his identity in relation to the art market and social expectations around masculinity? These casual, informal lines contain so much. Editor: A sketch, after all, is more than just preparatory work. It's an intimate expression of a subjective reality, something these scribbled sailboats powerfully convey.