Landschap met een huis en bomen 1910 - 1918

Alexander Shilling created this pencil sketch, entitled "Landschap met een huis en bomen," at an unknown date. Shilling, born in America in 1859, spent much of his life in Europe and was closely associated with the Hague School in the Netherlands. This sketch reflects a movement away from formal, academic painting towards capturing fleeting moments in nature. The Hague School artists often depicted the Dutch landscape, focusing on the everyday lives of ordinary people, in contrast to idealized historical or mythological scenes. The casual nature of this sketch, dashed off in what looks like a personal notebook, underscores a shift in the artist’s relationship to his subject matter. Where earlier landscape painters would have emphasized grand vistas and sublime effects, Shilling’s focus is more intimate and immediate. Understanding this work requires research into the artist's biography, the history of the Hague School, and the changing social role of landscape painting in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.