Vos in monnikspij (Reinaert) aan voeten van leeuw (Nobel) en leeuwin (Gentel), temidden van andere dieren c. 1910

Bernard Willem Wierink made this drawing of animals, including a fox dressed as a monk, sometime before 1939, using pencil and possibly ink. The way he’s rendered the figures makes me think about storytelling. It feels like the moment just before the curtain rises on a play. I wonder what Wierink was thinking when he created this image. Was it a study for something bigger, or a complete thought in itself? Maybe he was thinking about how we give human characteristics to animals in fables, a tradition that goes way back. I mean, look at that fox in a monk's robe! There's a lot of detail in the fur and the clothing. The colours are muted, like an old photograph. This piece reminds me of other artists who blurred the line between illustration and fine art. It is like they're all talking to each other across time, remixing ideas, inspiring each other's next moves. It makes you consider how art allows for endless interpretation, where one person's meaning might not be the same as another's, and that's okay.