Centraal station te Amsterdam 1902

Carel Nicolaas Storm van 's-Gravesande made this drawing of Amsterdam's Centraal Station, with charcoal, I imagine, maybe with a bit of chalk. Look at the sky, rubbed and smudged, and the way the water reflects the light. I can almost feel the breeze coming off the canal, the cool air on my face, and the sound of the water lapping against the boats. I wonder what it was like for van 's-Gravesande, standing there drawing, trying to capture the light and the feeling of that moment. He probably made a lot of choices about what to include and what to leave out, what to emphasize and what to suggest. The marks are so immediate and direct, it’s like he was trying to get something down as quickly as possible, before it disappeared. And in a way, that's what all artists are doing, trying to catch something fleeting and make it stay still for a little while, so we can look at it and think about it. It makes you think about the relationship between seeing and drawing, doesn't it?