Duinlandschap Possibly 1908

This is a landscape drawing, we don’t know exactly when Alexander Shilling made it, but I can picture him there, his hand moving back and forth with a soft pencil, trying to capture the light over a dune. I love the way the parallel strokes build up the form, like he's almost knitting the landscape together. There’s a really nice contrast between the sky, which is all dark and scribbly, and the dunes below, which are lighter and more open. It looks like the hand is really loose here, you know? Like he’s not trying to be too precious or careful. It reminds me of some of Guston’s late drawings, just in the way that he's using these simple marks to create something that feels both solid and ephemeral. I think it’s so cool how artists can talk to each other across time like that, inspiring each other's work, and just showing us new ways of seeing.