Bretonsche baai 1927

Bernard Essers made this woodcut, Bretonsche baai, in black ink, and you can feel the artist's hand. It’s so graphic and immediate. I love how Essers handled the negative space around the trees. He’s not just depicting a scene; he’s playing with the balance of dark and light, giving a real weight to the forms. Look closely, and you can almost feel the blade carving away at the wood, leaving behind these sharp, clean lines. It's as if the image is built from pure contrast, a bold statement with every cut. There’s a similar attention to mark-making that you see in the work of someone like Emil Nolde, especially in the way they both use the woodcut medium to create dramatic, emotionally charged images. The power of the image is not just in what’s there but in what’s been taken away, inviting us to fill in the blanks with our own imagination.