Landschap 1881 - 1927

Johan Antonie de Jonge made this landscape drawing with charcoal and maybe a touch of chalk – it's this moody gray world. I imagine de Jonge outside, maybe it was cold, and he’s trying to capture something fleeting. The way the trees claw at the sky, that thick dark smudge of cloud – you can almost feel the wind. It's like he’s wrestling with the scene, trying to pin down this raw, untamed energy, but it’s just smudging on the paper! Look at that one bold stroke defining the tree on the right. It's so decisive, so full of intent, and then it just dissolves back into the atmosphere. That’s what painting is, isn’t it? A constant back and forth. You throw something down, and then you pull it back. De Jonge’s conversation with the landscape becomes a conversation with all the other artists who have tried to do the same. It’s like we're all standing together, brushes in hand, trying to capture the uncapturable.