Landschap met bomen en omheining 1887

Willem Witsen made this etching, "Landscape with Trees and Fence," with ink on paper. The image reflects the Dutch art movement known as the Amsterdam Impressionism, with its loose brushstrokes and focus on capturing the atmosphere of a scene. This artistic trend emerged in the late 19th century in the Netherlands, and it was an important moment of questioning the art institutions, especially the established art academies, and their rigid rules for painting. Here, Witsen captures a very quiet moment in the Dutch landscape; we can see a row of trees behind a wooden fence, and a path in the foreground. The image is made of layered impressions of light and shadow. It is a study in depicting this flat, pastoral land without idealising it. Historians investigate such art works by tracing the biographies of artists, delving into exhibition records, reading period publications, and studying the formation of art movements in order to understand how they comment on the social structures of their time.