Reiger c. 1916

Curator: Welcome. Here at the Rijksmuseum, we’re fortunate to house this intimate pencil drawing, titled "Reiger," created around 1916 by Reijer Stolk. Editor: "Reiger" means heron, right? Well, this little guy is adorable! So scrawly and sort of… wistful looking? He feels like a thought barely captured, a whisper on the page. I love that it's obviously from a sketchbook page full of writing. Curator: Indeed. What strikes me about this drawing is how it reflects the artist’s process. It's clearly a quick sketch, probably amidst other notes and ideas within the sketchbook, giving us insight into Stolk's creative workflow and interests at the time. It's tempting to look at other images with his other notations about, presumably, daily studio habits in November, 1915. Editor: Habits of seeing... The lines are so minimal, almost abstract. You get the sense of a heron, the curve of the neck, that stately stance, but it's more feeling than photographic. Curator: Precisely! It’s the essence of the heron distilled into a few elegant lines. We see Stolk exploring form and capturing the character of the animal without laborious detail. This piece underscores the value of preliminary sketches as important visual and historical records. The history of making is the thing that hooks me here. Editor: I’m getting an invitation here to consider impermanence… you know? It looks ready to flutter away at any moment. It feels lighthearted, yet… the isolation of the figure is powerful. This sketch has that magical "it" quality; the rough immediacy really does it for me. Curator: Stolk seemed particularly captivated by fauna if you peek through his larger body of works. And even in his print work later in life, one can really trace these sketchbook beginnings through the evolution of form in his later completed and installed artwork. Thank you for lending your immediate eye to this quietly interesting, seemingly simple sketch. Editor: My pleasure! "Reiger" has certainly reminded me that a sketch can hold as much poetry as a grand, finished work. And maybe it carries even more magic because of that freedom to play.