To bondehuse ved sø med ænder 1916

Axel Holm made this print of two farmhouses by a lake, probably en plein air, but I don’t know for sure, maybe it was from memory. I’m interested in how the medium of etching here influences the feeling of the scene, the landscape reduced to its bare essentials. The surface is incredibly detailed, with lots of short, crisscrossing lines creating texture, and the composition of the landscape has a soft, dreamlike quality. See how the sky is full of big, fluffy clouds? The artist created this by using lots of tiny, little lines, it’s like he was trying to capture every detail of the natural world. I’m drawn to the density of the marks at the bottom of the page, which creates a heavy, weighty contrast to the lightness of the clouds in the sky. This print reminds me a little of Whistler’s etchings, but Holm has a very distinctive style. It’s all about capturing a feeling, an atmosphere, instead of just recording what’s there.