Figuur op een brug omgeven door bomen 1870 - 1931

Willem Bastiaan Tholen sketched "Figure on a Bridge Surrounded by Trees" using graphite pencil on paper. The strokes of the pencil create the illusion of light and shadow, giving shape to the bridge, trees, and figure. The quick, sketch-like quality of the drawing, its apparent spontaneity, is interesting. This was no doubt a preparatory study for a painting, and would have been completed on site. Pencil sketches like these are intimately linked to the tradition of plein air painting, which arose in the mid-19th century. Artists were keen to get out of the studio and into the world, documenting natural effects as directly as possible. Consider the labor embedded in this deceptively simple sketch. Not just Tholen's, but also the industrial workers who manufactured the pencil and paper. "Figure on a Bridge Surrounded by Trees" may seem distant from the factory floor, but it is directly connected to new forms of mass production. Appreciating this connection helps us to understand its full meaning.