Landschap 1638 - 1675

Editor: This delicate drawing, titled "Landschap," was created by Adriaen Hendriksz. Verboom sometime between 1638 and 1675, using graphite as the main medium. I’m immediately drawn to the quiet stillness of the scene. How do you find yourself connecting with this particular landscape? Curator: Ah, "Landschap"! Doesn't it just pull you into another time? For me, it’s not just the depiction of a landscape, it's a feeling, a memory. Look how Verboom uses graphite, it is so subtle! It’s almost as if he is whispering a secret about the relationship between the humans depicted and the landscape around them. The contrast, the light and shadow...what do you make of that? Editor: It feels like there's a kind of conversation between the deep shade in the foreground and the sunlit buildings further back. Almost as if the artist wants us to see both the comfortable shade, but to long for the light. Curator: Precisely! I suspect Verboom invites us to meditate upon light and shadow, reality and longing, the everyday and the dream-like, doesn't he? It reminds me of how sometimes when I’m walking through the woods, lost in thought, and I feel I'm existing both in this moment, and centuries ago...does it bring any particular place or feeling to mind for you? Editor: I think you’re right. It has that quality of something half-remembered. For me it feels very personal, like a cherished place visited often. I hadn't thought about it in those terms before, but his focus on the light definitely brings that contrast to the forefront. Curator: Indeed! I believe that's the magic of art, it sparks something different for each viewer. We started seeing trees and light, but landed someplace unexpected, and quite personal.