Kalenderblad augustus met zonnebloemen 1902

Theo van Hoytema made this calendar page for August with sunflowers sometime in his life, don't you wonder what the weather was like then? I’m really drawn to the contrast between the geometric grid of the calendar and the organic forms of the sunflowers and snails. It's like Hoytema is setting up a playful tension between structure and fluidity. I imagine him carefully plotting out the layout, and then letting his hand roam free as he draws the vines and the bees buzzing around the flowers. What was he thinking, lining the calendar up with snails? August is a month of transition, summer shifting into fall, and in this small work on paper, Hoytema captures that feeling of time passing, life moving at different speeds all around us. I bet Vincent van Gogh would have been into this guy’s work.