Landschap met waterval 1920

Editor: We’re looking at “Landschap met waterval” (Landscape with waterfall), created around 1920 by Simon Moulijn, rendered in pencil on paper. The landscape is lovely, but a little haunting – perhaps because it is grayscale? What feelings does it evoke in you? Curator: It's like stepping into a half-remembered dream, isn’t it? That muted palette evokes such a wistful stillness, yet there’s also dynamism in the subject matter - water in motion, rendered almost static, while the distant building hints at tales untold. A castle. Moulijn wants to transport us, I think. But to where, or when? Editor: That’s interesting. I was focused on the grayscale palette itself, and now you have me thinking of its dream-like effect on the *place* being shown. Do you feel there is a message of nostalgia being presented here? Curator: I do! Notice the contrasts – the detailed foreground against the hazy background, for instance. Is he looking back to an imagined, idealized past? Perhaps mourning it, as if he can almost, but not quite, reach out and touch it? Does the stark greyscale imply this might be a past irrecoverable, only a memory of one. Editor: And maybe that castle symbolizes those unattainable desires? Curator: Exactly! What do you make of the composition – all that carefully controlled detail gradually dissolving into abstraction as your eye moves into the depths? I am struck by the way in which foreground is highly textured in contrast to background to draw the eye into what would have felt real, near and tactile. I have goosebumps. It has to be deliberate, an artist’s secret language with the ages. Editor: It’s incredible to think about how much thought goes into something that appears simple at first glance. Now I am wondering whether black-and-white printing influenced his decision, or vice-versa. Curator: Ah, a delicious puzzle for another time, my friend! This piece offers endless layers, it seems, with no final resolution – precisely how art should be.