Mountain Landscape Seen across the Walls 2 1889

Vincent van Gogh created this drawing, "Mountain Landscape Seen across the Walls 2," with pen and ink. The landscape is immediately striking because of its obsessive lines; there is an undulating quality. The drawing captures a vista, as its title indicates, of fields, walls, buildings, and mountains. Van Gogh’s structured marks of swirls and dashes create a field of pure sensation. The artist employed the same technique to depict other elements of the natural world. The pen strokes are like ciphers of feeling, rhythmically and methodically applied. Van Gogh uses line to build up volume and describe form in his drawings. However, these marks disrupt traditional representation. His art challenges our conventional understanding, and questions how we perceive and interact with our surroundings.