Ploegende paarden 1904

Pieter Dupont made this small etching of horses plowing a field, and what strikes me is how much it describes a world in motion. There’s such a feeling of air, space and activity conveyed with only the tiniest marks! Look at the way the land seems to rise and fall, and how the horses are caught mid-stride, all through the magic of black lines on white paper. Notice how the composition pulls your eye from left to right. There’s a kind of controlled chaos in the way Dupont uses these marks, a bit like the Abstract Expressionist painters like Twombly and Kline. The density of lines creates depth, shadow, and a sense of the horses' muscularity and the difficulty of their task. Like a lot of etchings, this one captures a moment, an action. It’s less about the thing, and more about what it's doing.