Bosrand 1913 - 1915

Jan Mankes made this drawing, *Bosrand*, using a monochrome palette of graphite on paper. I can imagine him outside in nature with his sketch pad in hand, recording a quiet moment. Look at the density of marks, layer upon layer, building up a dark thicket of trees and tangled bushes. I like the way the bare trees reach into the sky with only a few nervous lines. The paper is exposed in places, allowing light to seep into the scene. Mankes was working at the beginning of the twentieth century when artists were reimagining our relationship to the natural world. I wonder if he was thinking about Van Gogh, and the way that he drew from nature with an expressive, emotional intensity. Maybe this drawing was a philosophical pursuit for Mankes, a way of thinking through feeling. There is something both tentative and resolved in its final state. It feels like an open question about the cycle of life, the way new forms emerge from decay.