Landskab med agave. Sydfrankrig 1920 - 1923

Vilhelm Lundstrom made this drawing of a landscape with agave in the South of France with pencil and watercolor, and looking at it, I can almost feel the sun on my skin. It’s one of those drawings that feels less about a specific place and more about a feeling. I imagine Lundstrom, squinting in the bright sun, trying to capture the essence of the scene, not just the details. He's using these muted earth tones and simple, quick strokes to convey the heat, the dryness, and the stark beauty of the landscape. There's a rawness here, in the way the agave plants are rendered with these almost crude lines, as if he’s trying to get at some primal feeling, some basic sense of place. It reminds me a bit of Cezanne, who was also obsessed with Southern France, though Lundstrom has a lighter touch. It is like they were both trying to understand the world through paint and pencil, feeling their way through it, one mark at a time. That’s what drawing and painting is all about, really.