Landschap met bomen 1876 - 1911

Adolphe van Weezel Errens made this landscape with trees using pen and ink, sometime around 1917. The drawing has the quality of an etching, because Errens’s marks are so delicate and densely packed. This effect has everything to do with his choice of material, the fineness of the pen nib and ink, which allowed him to create remarkable detail and atmosphere. Look closely, and you'll see just how much patient labor went into this image. This drawing and others like it, represent a conscious effort to elevate graphic art to the same level as painting and sculpture. Errens clearly wanted to demonstrate that a drawing could be as rich and evocative as any painting. What is normally considered a preliminary stage can instead become the final product. So, next time you see a drawing, consider all of the artistic choices that went into its creation, and how these can challenge our assumptions about what constitutes a finished work of art.