Gezicht op een dorp, vermoedelijk Damme 1923

Alexander Shilling sketched this landscape, presumably of Damme, with graphite on paper. Notice how the trees dominate the foreground, their bare branches reaching upwards like supplicating arms. This motif of trees, stripped bare, recurs throughout art history, often symbolizing mortality, loss, or the harsh realities of winter. Yet, they also hint at resilience, the promise of rebirth. Consider the work of Caspar David Friedrich, where such trees evoke a sense of the sublime and the confrontation with the self. Here, though, Shilling's touch is lighter, more suggestive. The distant building, possibly a church, anchors the scene, a beacon of continuity amidst the temporal cycles represented by the trees. This juxtaposition, this eternal return, is what stirs our collective memory, engaging with deep-seated human experiences of hope and despair.