Daken en tuinen in Enkhuizen - Willem Bastiaan Tholen

A graphite sketch by Willem Bastiaan Tholen depicting the rooftops and gardens of Enkhuizen, capturing the quiet character of a historic Dutch town.

This graphite sketch by Willem Bastiaan Tholen captures a quiet view over the rooftops and gardens of Enkhuizen, a historic town in the Netherlands. Tholen, a member of the later generation of the Hague School, frequently travelled to coastal towns to document the vernacular architecture and the specific quality of Dutch light. His approach to drawing is direct and observational, prioritising the structural rhythm of the gabled roofs and the organic, tangled forms of the foliage below.

The composition is built through a series of quick, rhythmic marks. Tholen uses varied pressure to distinguish between the rigid, geometric lines of the houses and the looser, circular scribbles representing the trees and shrubs. The drawing retains a sense of immediacy, suggesting it was executed on-site as a study of form and tone rather than a finished exhibition piece. The grid lines visible on the paper indicate its origin as a page from a sketchbook, a common practice for artists of the period who sought to record fleeting impressions of their surroundings.

Enkhuizen provided Tholen with a wealth of subject matter, particularly in its older quarters where the density of the buildings creates interesting spatial relationships. In this work, the artist avoids unnecessary detail, focusing instead on the interplay between the built environment and the natural growth that softens the edges of the town. The result is a modest, honest depiction of provincial life, characteristic of the artist's broader interest in the quiet corners of the Dutch countryside. This print preserves the texture of the original graphite, allowing the viewer to appreciate the artist's hand and the spontaneous nature of his mark-making process.