Oude eik op het landgoed Nieuw Raude te Diepenveen c. 1900 - 1940

This photograph of an old oak on the Nieuw Raude estate in Diepenveen was taken by Richard Tepe sometime between 1864 and 1952. Look at the light filtering through the leaves, how it dances on the water. I wonder, when Tepe framed this shot, did he consider how the tree's gnarled branches reach out like an old hand, or how the reflection blurs the line between earth and sky? You know, it's funny, in painting we often talk about the 'hand of the artist' – that visible trace of the maker. With photography, it's different, it's the eye, the perspective. Tepe's eye saw something special in this tree. Maybe he felt a connection to its age, its resilience. Or maybe he was simply captivated by the way light transformed the landscape. Photography and painting – both are about seeing and showing, aren’t they? Different tools, different ways of working, but the same desire to capture a moment, a feeling, a fragment of the world.