Portaal van de Grote of Sint-Stevenskerk in Nijmegen 1888 - 1934

Willem Adrianus Grondhout made this print of the Sint-Stevenskerk in Nijmegen. It’s all in monochrome, like a memory. It’s not about capturing a scene perfectly, but more like feeling it out, line by line. Look at the doorway, how the lines kind of wobble and dance. It's not about being precise, but about the act of describing, a bit like telling a story. See how the light and shadow play on the stone, all scratchy and immediate? It feels like he's right there, etching as the sun moves. Then there's that little figure by the archway, barely there, yet they give the whole thing a sense of scale, of life. There's a kind of kinship with someone like Whistler here. Both of them making these quiet, atmospheric prints that are as much about mood as they are about place. Art isn't about answers. It’s about keeping the conversation going, about seeing the world in new and unexpected ways.