Riviergezicht met een zeilboot c. 1909s

Alexander Shilling made this sketchbook drawing of a river view and sailboat, probably in situ, with pencil on paper. What grabs me here is the pure, unadulterated mark-making. The lines are so simple, like notations of form, a shorthand for the experience of seeing. There’s a real feeling of immediacy, like he’s trying to capture the essence of the scene as quickly as possible. Look at how he renders the buildings on the right page with just a few scribbles, and the way he suggests the movement of the water with those little zig-zag lines. It's almost like he's not trying to create a realistic representation, but rather a kind of memory map. This piece reminds me a little of Guston’s late drawings, where the forms are reduced to their most basic elements. It shows how artists across time engage in a visual conversation, borrowing and building on each other’s ideas, and always pushing the boundaries of what art can be.