Kalenderblad voor april 1910 met een witte kwikstaart 1909

Theo van Hoytema made this calendar page for April 1910 with lithography. Look at the way he uses a very limited palette of blacks and browns to describe so much: a bird, a landscape, even the days of the month! The texture is all in the marks, the tiny hatchings that build up the form of the bird and the weathered wood it stands on. There's a real sense of process here, not trying to hide the hand but letting the accumulation of marks create the image. I love how this one little bird becomes the ambassador for the whole month of April, perched there with its beady eye. The little birds across the top of the calendar are like a visual echo, or maybe a promise of what’s to come. It reminds me of the kind of careful observation you see in Audubon’s bird illustrations, but with a folksier, more handmade feel. Van Hoytema reminds us that art is a conversation, a way of seeing and sharing that connects us across time.