Stilleven met schedel op een boek 1919

Jacques Hartog made this print of a skull on a book with ink, and who knows what else. Look at those marks. They're like tiny scratches, building up to make this whole scene. It's so dark, so somber, you can feel the weight of the ink. I like how everything is so textured, not just the skull and the book, but even the background feels like it has a story to tell. It makes me wonder what kind of tools Hartog was using. Was it a needle, or maybe something rougher? You can almost feel him dragging the tool across the surface. Think about Rembrandt and the way he used light and shadow to create depth. This print shares that intensity, that feeling of something profound lurking beneath the surface. It reminds us that art isn't just about pretty pictures, it's about wrestling with big questions, and maybe not finding any easy answers.