Heuvellandschap met bebouwing Possibly 1914 - 1916

Willem Witsen made this landscape drawing with pencil, we're not sure when, but it looks like it was done on the spot. It is a quick impressionistic sketch of a landscape. There’s something really satisfying about the directness of the mark-making here, each line feeling provisional and exploratory. It is kind of like a seismograph of the artist’s eye as it moves across the scene, pausing here and there to register a particular detail. Notice how the hatching on the hillside creates a sense of depth and volume, while the lighter touches in the distance suggest atmosphere and space. There's a bit of ambiguity too, like in the foreground where the lines are more dense and scribbled, almost obscuring the forms. I like the way Witsen embraces this ambiguity, allowing the drawing to remain open and unresolved. Makes me think of other landscape artists like, say, Hercules Segers, who were interested in capturing not just the appearance of a place, but also the feeling of being there. For both, art is this ongoing conversation, a way of seeing and thinking that continues to evolve.