Christus op de Olijfberg 1924

Lodewijk Schelfhout made this lithograph, Christus op de Olijfberg, sometime between 1881 and 1943. Can you imagine him in the studio, carefully sketching and cross-hatching, coaxing light and shadow from the stone? The somber palette of grays and blacks casts a contemplative mood, a quiet drama. The artist's hand is so evident in the linework. The marks build up layer by layer, giving form to the figures of Christ and the angel and also to a feeling of isolation, of deep sorrow. I wonder what Schelfhout was thinking when he made this, and what inspired this image. There’s an echo of earlier masters, like Dürer, but there is also something very modern in its raw emotionality. Artists are always having this conversation across time, you know, riffing off each other, inspiring each other to see and feel in new ways. And that’s what makes art so endlessly fascinating.