Schaatsende figuur op een sloot 1940

Lodewijk Schelfhout made this print called *Schaatsende figuur op een sloot* using etching. The artist, with their needle tool, must have built up the image dot by dot, line by line – the clouds, the frozen ground, the bare tree, the skater, even the distant windmill. I can imagine him outdoors, on location, bundled up against the cold, sketching to capture the scene before working back in the studio. I love the way the bare tree dominates the composition, its branches like veins reaching out into the gray sky. There's a real sense of atmosphere, like you can feel the crisp air and see your breath misting. It reminds me of other landscape artists like Hercules Segers, or even some of the later work of Mondrian, how they used simple lines to capture the essence of a place. I can really feel the dialogue between artists, with each building on the work of those before them. Ultimately, this print invites us to pause, reflect, and embrace the unpredictable nature of life.